THE  WORKING  CLASS 

(The  Proletariat) 

w'-,„ 


By  KARL  KAUTSKY 

Translated  from  the  German  and  Adapted  to  America 
By  DANIEL  DE  LEON 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE 

NEW  YORK  LABOR  NEWS  COMPANY 


2 to  6 New  Reade  Street 
New  York  City 


33 

-H 


BOOKS  BY  KARL  KAUTSKY 


The 

Working  Class, 

Five 

The 

Capitalist  Class, 

Five 

The 

Class  Struggle, 

Five 

The 

Socialist  Republic, 

Five 

Cents 

Cents 

Cents 

Cents 


Copyright,  1900,  by  the 
NEW  YORK  LABOR  NEWS  COMPANY 


26. /v‘ 


/ 


PREFACE. 


“The  Working  Class”  is  one  of  the  four  “Kautsky  pamphlets,” 
“The  Capitalist  Class,”  “The  Class  Struggle,”  and  “The  Socialist 
Republic”  completing  the  series.  Each  of  the  pamphlets  is  virtu- 
ally a chapter  from  Kautsky’s  valuable  work,  “Das  Erfurter  Pro- 
gram” (The  Erfurt  Program”).  “Das  Erfurter  Program”  is  a 
treatise  on  the  platform  or  program  adopted  at  Erfurt  in  1891  by 
the  Socialist  Party  of  Germany — the  Social  Democratic  Party.  It 
takes  up  the  various  subdivisions  or  planks  of  the  platform,  and  in 
explaining  them  gives  a comprehensive  and  systematic  exposition  of 
Socialist  economic  and  sociologic  theory. 

In  working  this  exposition  into  English  for  the  American  public, 
substantial  alteration,  not  in  the  essence,  but  in  the  manner  of  pres- 
entation, became  necessary.  Some  chapters  had  to  be  omitted  as 
wholly  inapplicable  here,  and  the  others  were  recast  into  four 
pamphlets,  each  of  which  stands  on  its  own  feet.  While  they  are 
connected  with  each  other  by  the  subject,  and,  together,  present  a 
fairly  connected  exposition  of  Socialism,  they  can  be  read  inde- 
pendently in  any  sequence  and  be  perfectly  intelligible. 

A word  as  to  terms  used.  In  the  “Communist  Manifesto”  Engels 
explains  the  meaning  of  the  terms  “bourgeoisie”  and  “proletariat” 
as  follows:  “By  bourgeoisie  is  meant  the  class  of  modern  capitalists, 
owners  of  means  of  social  production  and  employers  of  wage-labor. 
By  proletariat,  the  class  of  modern  wage-laborers  who,  having  no 
means  of  production  of  their  own,  are  reduced  to  selling  their  labor- 
power  in  order  to  live.”  In  Europe  the  word  “bourgeoisie”  is  uni- 
versally used  to  designate  the  class  known  in  the  United  States  as 
the  “capitalist  class.”  In  Europe,  also,  the  word  “proletariat”  is 
used  to  designate  the  class  known  in  the  United  States  as  the  “work- 
ing class.”  The  term  working  class  has  served  so  long  in  America  to 
designate  the  wage-earning  class,  as  distinguished  from  the  profit- 
receiving class,  that  in  this  adaptation  the  term  working  class  has 
been  used  quite  largely  for  that  purpose.  But  it  has  been  impossible 
rr-jdJy  to  adhere  to  one  term  in  every  connection.  Let  it  be  observed, 
therefore,  that  the  terms  “proletariat,”  “working  class,”  “wage-earn- 
ing .class,”  “wage-earners,”  “wage-slaves,”  “workingmen,”  and  “work- 
men,” are  used  synonomously  to  indicate  the  “class  of  modern  wage- 

*’  Y 2 1636 


iv 


PREFACE. 


laborers  who,  having  no  means  of  production  of  their  own,  are  re- 
duced to  selling  their  labor-power  in  order  to  live.” 

For  information  relative  to  the  effect  on  the  working  class  of 
the  introduction  of  the  capitalist  system  of  production,  the  reader  is 
referred  to  Frederick  Engels’  “The  Condition  of  the  Working  Class 
in  England.”  In  this  volume  Engels  traces  with  a masterly  hand 
the  development  of  English  capitalism  from  1800  down  to  1844.  By 
citations  from  factory  reports,  newspapers,  and  magazines,  and 
from  his  own  observation,  he  reveals  the  lamentable  condition  of 
the  English  working  class,  and  then  analyzes  that  condition  with 
a desire  to  determine  the  cause.  The  book  is  a mine  of  information 
that  should  be  quarried  by  every  workingman. 

For  the  effect  on  the  working  class  of  the  later  development  of 
the  capitalist  system  of  production,  reference  should  be  made  to 
Marx’s  “Capital.”  In  the  last  three  parts  of  this  work  Marx  traces 
the  condition  of  the  English  working  class  from  1845  to  1870,  and 
uses  that  condition  «as  an  exemplification  of  the  principles  advanced 
in  the  first  part.  These  two  books  (“The  Condition  of  the  Working 
Class  in  England”  and  “Capital”)  give  a complete  history  of  the 
struggles  of  the  English  proletariat  with  the  capitalist  system  of 
production  from  its  early  days  down  to  recent  times. 

For  foot-notes  throwing  additional  light  on  the  text,  recourse 
has  been  had  to  “The  Condition  of  the  Working  Class  in  England,” 
“Woman  in  the  Past,  Present,  and  Future,”  by  August  Bebel,  and 
“The  Socialist  Almanac,”  by  Lucien  Sanial.  The  student  will  do  well 
to  have  “The  Socialist  Almanac”  always  at  hand.  For  statistical 
articles  and  facts  relative  to  capitalism  in  the  United  States,  ma- 
chinery, woman  and  child  labor,  trusts,  bankruptcy,  etc.,  it  contains 
accurate  information  that  can  be  obtained  in  no  other  book.  Its  his- 
torical monographs,  giving  a complete  history  of  the  development  of 
Socialism  in  the  several  countries  of  Europe,  will  also  be  of  great 
aid  to  the  student. 


THE  PUBLISHERS. 


REMOTE  STORAOE 


THE  WORKING  CLASS. 

("The  Proletariat.) 


CHAPTER  I. 

EFFECT  OF  MACHINERY. 

In  all  countries  in  which  the  capitalist  system  of  production 
prevails,  especially  in  such  countries  as  the  United  States,  where 
capitalism  has  reached  the  point  of  production  on  a large  scale,  we 
find  the  population  divided  mainly  into  two  classes:  first,  the  capi- 
talists, who  possess  the  means  of  production — tools,  machinery,  land, 
etc. — but  who  take  no  part  in  production  itself;  and,  secondly,  the 
wage-workers,  the  proletariat,  who  possess  nothing  but  their  labor- 
power  on  the  sale  of  which  they  live,  and  whose  labor  alone  brings 
forth  the  whole  wealth  of  the  land. 

Capitalists  need  a large  supply  of  proletarians;  originally,  in 
other  countries  and  in  ages  gone  by,  forcible  methods  were  resorted 
to,  to  furnish  this  requisite  supply.  To-day,  however,  in  the  United 
States  especially,  such  methods  are  no  longer  needed.  The  superior 
power  of  capitalist  production  on  a large  scale  over  small  produc- 
tion is  sufficient,  without  doing  open  violence  to  the  law  or  to  pri- 
vate property,  but,  on  the  contrary,  with  the  very  assistance  of  these, 
year  in  and  year  out  to  strip  of  all  property  a sufficient  number  of 
small  farmers  and  industrialists,  who  are  then  thrown  upon  the 
streets,  who  merge  with  the  mass  of  the  proletariat,  and  who  thereby 
satisfy  the  ever-increasing  capitalist  demand  for  more  human  flesh. 

CAPITALIST  PRODUCTION  INCREASES  THE  NUMBER  OF  THE  PROLETARIAT. 

That  the  number  of  the  proletariat  is  steadily  on  the  increase  in 
the  United  States  is  such  a palpable  fact  that  it  is  even  no  longer 
denied  by  those  who  would  make  us  believe  that  society  to-day  rests 
upon  the  same  basis  that  it  did  a hundred  yars  ago,  and  who  try  to 
paint  in  rosy  colors  the  picture  of  the  small  producer.  Indeed,  a rev- 
olution has  taken  place  in  the  make-up  of  society,  the  same  as  it  has 
in  the  system  of  production.  The  capitalist  form  of  production  has 
overthrown  all  others  and  become  the  dominant  one  in  the  field  of 
industry.  Similarly,  wage-labor  is  to-day  the  dominant  form  of 
labor.  A hundred  years  ago  the  farming  peasantry  took  the  first 

flace;  later,  the  small  city  industrialists;  to-day  it  is  the  wage- 
arners,  or  proletariat. 

In  all  civilized  countries  the  proletarians  are  to-day  the  largest 
class;  it  is  their  condition  and  modes  of  thought  that  control  those 


6 


THE  WORKING  CLASS. 


of  all  the  other  subdivisions  of  labor1.  This  state  of  things  implies 
a complete  revolution  in  the  condition  and  thought  of  the  bulk  of 
the  population.  The  conditions  of  the  proletariat  differ  radically 
from  those  of  all  other  former  categories  of  labor.  The  small  farmer, 
the  artisan,  the  small  producers  generally,  were  the  owners  of 
the  product  of  their  own  labor  by  reason  of  their  ownership  of  the 
means  of  production;  contrariwise,  the  product  of  the  labor  of  the 
proletarian  does  not  belong  to  him,  it  belongs  to  the  capitalist,  to 
the  purchaser  of  his  labor-power,  to  the  owner  of  the  requisite  in- 
struments of  production.  True  enough,  the  proletarian  is  paid  there- 
for by  the  capitalist,  but  the  value  of  his  wages  is  far  below  that  of 
his  product. 

PROLETARIAN  LABOR  THE  SOURCE  OF  CAPITALIST  PROFIT. 

When  in  industry  (and  let  it  be  here  said,  once  for  all,  that,  at 
the  present  stage  of  economic  development,  agriculture  is  as  much 
an  industry  as  any  other  branch  of  production)  the  capitalist  pur- 
chases the  only  commodity  which  the  proletarian  can  offer  for  sale, 
to  wit,  his  labor-power,  he  does  so  only  for  the  purpose  of  utilizing 
it  in  a profitable  way.  The  more  the  workingman  produces,  the 
larger  the  value  of  his  total  product.  If  the  capitalist  were  to  work 
his  employees  only  long  enough  to  produce  the  worth  of  the  wages  he 
pays  them,  he  would  clear  no  profits.  But,  however  willing  the  capi- 
talist is  to  pose  as  the  “benefactor  of  suffering  humanity,”  his  capi- 
tal cries  for  “profits,”  and  finds  in  him  a willing  listener.  The 
longer  the  time  is  extended  during  which  the  workmen  labor  in  the 
service  of  the  capitalists  over  and  above  the  time  needed  to  cover 
their  wages,  the  larger  is  the  value  of  their  product,  the  larger  is  the 
surplus  over  and  above  the  capitalist  outlay  in  wages,  and  the  larger 
is  the  quantity  of  exploitation  to  which  these  workmen  are  sub- 
jected. This  exploitation  or  fleecing  of  labor  finds  a limit  only  in  the 
powers  of  endurance  of  the  working  people,  and  in  the  resistance 
which  they  may  be  able  to  offer  to  their  exploiters. 

In  capitalist  production,  the  capitalist  and  the  wage-worker  are 

Regarding  the  relative  numerical  strength  of  the  classes,  according  to 
the  census  of  1890,  the  following  figures  taken  from  “The  Socialist  Almanac” 


are  interesting  : 

Plutocratic  [capitalist]  Class 177,478 

Middle  Class 6,548,862 

Professional  Class 944,333 

Working  Class 15,064,988 


It  should  be  observed  that  in  the  above  figures  the  persons  in  occupation 
are  alone  included,  and  no  account  is  taken  of  their  immediate  family  depend- 
ents who  are  not  reported  by  the  census  as  engaged  in  any  pursuit — such  as 
wives  at  home,  children  at  school  or  at  home,  aged  parents,  etc.  When  these 
dependents  are  included  the  result  is  as  follows  : 

Plutocratic  [capitalist]  Class 887,390 

Middle  Class -22,517,472 

Professional  Class 3,777,332 

Working  Class 34,440,046  # 

For  a scientific  analysis  of  the  classes  in  the  United  States,  their  relative 
strength,  relative  quantity  of  wealth  owned,  and  relative  importance  in 
society,  the  student  should  refer  to  “The  Socialist  Almanac,”  pages  97  to  112. 


EFFECT  OF  MACHINERY. 


7 

not  active  together  as  the  employer  and  the  employed  were  in 
previous  industrial  epochs.  The  capitalist  soon  develops  into,  and 
remains  essentially,  a merchant.  His  activity,  in  so  far  as  he  may 
be  at  all  active,  limits  itself,  like  that  of  the  merchant,  to  the  opera- 
tions of  the  market.  His  labors  consist  in  purchasing  as  cheaply 
as  possible  the  raw  material,  labor-power,  and  other  essentials,  and 
to  turn  around  and  sell  the  finished  products  as  dearly  as  possible. 
Upon  the  field  of  production  itself,  he  does  nothing  except  to  secure 
the  largest  quantity  of  labor  from  the  workmen  for  the  least  possible 
amount  of  wages,  and  thereby  to  squeeze  out  of  them  the  largest  pos- 
sible quantity  of  surplus  values.  With  regard  to  his  workmen,  he  is 
not  a fellow-worker,  he  is  only  a driver , an  exploiter.  The  longer  they 
work,  the  better  off  he  is;  he  is  not  tired  out  if  the  hours  of  labor 
are  unduly  extended;  he  does  not  perish  if  the  method  of  produc- 
tion becomes  a murderous  one.  Of  all  ruling  classes  the  capitalist 
is  the  most  reckless  of  the  life  and  safety  of  his  operatives.  Exten- 
sion of  the  hours  of  work,  abolition  of  holidays,  introduction  of 
night  labor,  damp  or  overheated  factories,  filled  with  poisonous 
gases,  such  are  the  “improvements  which  the  capitalist  mode  of  pro- 
duction has  introduced  for  the  benefit  of  the  working  class. 

HOW  MACHINERY  LOWERS  THE  CONDITION  OF  THE  WORKING  CLASS. 

The  introduction  of  machinery  increases  still  further  the  dan- 
ger to  life  and  limb  for  the  workingman.  The  machine  system  fet- 
ters him  to  a monster  that  moves  perpetually  with  a gigantic  power 
and  with  insane  speed.  Only  the  closest,  never-flagging  attention 
can  protect  the  workingman  attached  to  such  a machine  from  being 
seized  and  broken  by  it.  Protective  measures  cost  money;  the 
capitalist  does  not  introduce  them  unless  he  is  forced  thereto. 
Economy  being  the  much  vaunted  virtue  of  the  capitalist,  he  is  con- 
strained by  it  to  save  room  and  to  squeeze  as  much  machinery  as 
possible  into  the  workshop.  What  cares  he  that  the  limbs  of  his 
workingmen  are  thereby  endangered?  Workingmen  are  cheap,  but 
large  airy  workshops  are  dear. 

There  is  still  another  respect  in  which  the  capitalist  application 
of  machinery  lowers  the  condition  of  the  working  class.  It  is  this: 
The  tool  of  the  former  mechanic  was  cheap;  it  was  subject  to  few 
changes  that  would  render  it  useless.  Otherwise  with  the  machine; 
in  the  first  place,  it  costs  money,  much  money;  in  the  second  place, 
if,  through  improvements  in  the  system,  it  becomes  useless,  or  if  it 
is  not  used  to  its  full  capacity,  it  will  bring  loss  instead  of  profit  to 
the  capitalist.  Again,  the  machine  is  worn  out  not  only  through  use, 
but  also  through  idleness.  Furthermore,  the  introduction  of  science 
into  production,  the  result  of  which  is  the  machine  itself,  causes 
constant  new  discoveries  and  inventions  to  take  the  place  of  older 
ones,  and  renders  constantly,  now  this,  then  that  sort  of  machine, 
«md  often  whole  factories  at  once,  unable  to  compete  with  the  im- 
proved ones  before  they  have  been  used  up  to  their  full  extent; 
owing  to  these  changes,  every  machine  is  in  constant  danger  of  be- 
ing made  useless  before  it  is  used  up.  This  is  sufficient  ground  for 


8 


THE  WORKING  CLASS. 


the  capitalist  to  utilize  his  machine  as  quickly  as  possible  from  the 
moment  he  puts  it  in  operation.  In  other  words,  the  capitalist  appli- 
cation of  the  system  of  machinery  is  a particular  spur  that  drives 
the  capitalist  to  extend  the  hours  of  labor  as  much  as  possible,  to 
carry  on  production  without  interruption,  to  introduce  the  system  of 
night  and  day  shifts,  and,  accordingly,  to  rear  the  unwholesome  sys- 
tem of  night  work  into  a permanent  system. 

At  the  time  the  system  of  machinery  began  to  develop,  some 
ideologists  declared  the  Golden  Age  was  at  hand:  the  machine  was 
to  release  the  workingman  and  render  him  a free  man.  In  the 
hands  of  the  capitalist,  however,  the  machine  has  become  the  most 
powerful  lever  towards  making  heavier  the  load  of  labor  borne  by 
the  proletariat,  and  to  aggravate  his  servitude  into  an  unbearable 
condition. 

But  it  is  not  only  with  regard  to  the  hours  of  work  that  the  con- 
dition of  the  wage-worker  has  suffered  with  the  introduction  of  ma- 
chinery. It  has  suffered  also  with  regard  to  his  wages.  The  proletarian, 
the  workman  of  to-day,  does  not  eat  at  the  table  of  the  capitalist; 
he  does  not  live  in  the  same  house.  However  wretched  his  home 
may  be;  however  miserable  his  food,  nay,  even  though  he  may 
famish,  the  wellbeing  of  the  capitalist  is  not  disturbed  by  the  sick- 
ening sight.  The  words  Wages  and  Starvation  used  to  be  opposites; 
the  free  workingman  could  formerly  starve  only  when  he  had  no 
work;  whoever  worked  earned  Wages,  he  had  enough  to  eat,  Star- 
vation was  not  his  lot.  The  unenviable  distinction  was  reserved  for 
the  capitalist  system  of  production  to  reconcile  these  two  opposites 
— Wages  and  Starvation — and  to  raise  Starvation-Wages  into  a 
permanent  institution,  into  a prop  of  the  present  social  system.1 


CHAPTER  II. 

WAGES. 

Wages  can  never  rise  so  high  as  to  make  it  impossible  for  the 
capitalist  to  carry  on  his  business  and  live;  under  such  circum- 
stances it  would  be  more  profitable  for  the  capitalist  to  give  up  his 
business.  Consequently,  the  wages  of  the  workingman  can  never  rise 
high  enough  to  equal  the  value  of  his  product.  They  must  always  be 
below  that,  so  as  to  leave  a surplus;  it  is  only  the  prospect  of  a 

Machinery  itself  is  of  course  a part  of  the  surplus  value  created  by  the 
workers  and  appropriated  by  the  capitalists.  How  large  a portion  of  this 
surplus  value  is  embodied  in  that  mighty  weapon  it  were  at  least  interesting 
to  know.  According  to  figures  taken  from  the  last  census  the  total  money 
value  of  the  machinery,  tools,  and  implements  used  in  manufacturing  and 
mechanical  industries  was  $1,584,000,000,  or  about  24  per  cent,  of  the  total 
capital  employed  in  those  industries.  On  the  other  hand,  the  net  profits  of 
manufacturing  capitalists,  all  legitimate  reductions  having  been  made  for 
taxes,  repairs,  etc.,  amounted  to  about  $1,930,000,000.  Therefore  the  manih 
facturing  and  mechanical  workers  produced  in  one  year  over  and  above  the}' 
own  sustenance  a net  value,  factory  price , exceeding  by  three  hundred  an^ 
forty-six  million  dollars  the  whole  cost  of  the  machinery  by  means  of  which 
they  were  exploited  and  through  which  they  and  their  posterity  will  keep 
enslaved  until  Capitalism  is  abolished. — Socialist  Almanac,  p.  183, 


WAGES. 


9 


surplus  that  moves  the  capitalist  to  purchase  labor-power.  It  is, 
therefore,  evident  that  in  the  capitalist  social  system  the  wages  of 
the  workmen  can  never  rise  high  enough  to  put  an  end  to  the  ex- 
ploitation of  labor. 

SIZE  OF  THE  SURPLUS  APPROPRIATED  BY  THE  CAPITALIST  CLASS. 

This  surplus,  which  the  capitalist  class  appropriates,  is  larger 
than  is  usually  imagined.1  It  covers,  not  only  the  “profits”  of  the 
manufacturer,  but  many  other  items  that  are  usually  credited  to  the 
costs  of  production  and  exchange.  It  covers,  for  instance,  rent,  in- 
terest on  loans,  salaries,  merchant’s  profits,  taxes,  etc.  All  these 
have  to  be  covered  with  the  surplus,  or  the  excess  of  the  value  of  the 
product  over  the  wages  of  the  workingman.  It  is  evident  that  this 
surplus  must  be  a considerable  one  if  a concern  is  to  “pay;”  the 
exploitation  of  the  workingman  must  be  great,  even  where  the 
wages  are  high.  It  is  clear  that  the  wages  of  the  workingman  can- 
not rise  high  enough  to  be  even  approximately  equal  to  the  value  of 
his  product.  The  capitalist  wages  system  means,  under  all  circum- 
stances, the  thorough  exploitation  of  the  working  class.  It  is  im- 
possible to  abolish  this  exploitation  without  abolishing  the  system 
itself.2 

INFLUENCES  THAT  TEND  TO  RAISE  AND  LOWER  WAGES. 

But  wages  rarely  reach  the  highest  point  which  they  might, 
even  under  these  circumstances;  more  often  they  are  found  to  oe 
nearer  to  the  lowest  possible  point.  This  point  is  reached  when  the 


1In  each  of  the  three  census  years  here  considered  [1870,  1880.  and  1890] 
the  Plutocratic  [capitalist]  Class,  including  all  its  family  dependents — men, 
women,  and  children — constituted  an  insignificant  fraction  of  the  total  popu- 
lation. Whether  such  a fraction  be  a little  less  or  a little  more  than  one 
per  cent,  is  of  course  immaterial.  * * Of  its  stupendous  growth  in 

wealth  there  can,  of  course,  be  no  question.  With  the  exception  of  a compara- 
tively few  shares  and  bonds  held  by  people  of  middle  and  professional  classes, 
it  owns  the  railroads,  telegraphs,  shipping,  banks,  mines,  and  all  the  great  in- 
dustries which  are  generally  conducted  by  corporations  ; it  owns  all  the  ware- 
houses and  the  vast  stocks  of  merchandise  stored  therein,  waiting  for  the  hand 
to  mouth  demands  of  the  retail  trade  ; all  the  most  valuable  business  real 
estate  in  cities,  besides  palatial  residences,  immense  tracts  of  land  held  on 
speculation  and  farms  cultivated  by  tenants  ; also  art  treasures,  sumptuous 
furniture,  costly  apparel,  etc.  Lastly,  it  is  the  chief  creditor  of  municipalities 
and  States  anu  of  many  private  persons — farmers,  traders,  real  estate  owners, 
etc. — belonging  to  the  middle  class. — Socialist  Almanac,  p.  101. 

2It  therefore  appears  from  the  foregoing  table  : 

That  in  1890  the  Plutocratic  [capitalist]  Class,  representing  less  than 
1 % per  cent,  of  the  population,  held  more  than  64  per  cent,  (and  with  its 
allies,  the  foreign  investors,  about  67%  per  cent.)  of  the  total  wealth 
produced  by  American  labor. 

That  the  Middle  Class  represented  37%  per  cent,  of  the  total  population 
and  24%  per  cent,  of  the  total  wealth. 

That  the  Professional  Class,  representing  6 per  cent,  of  the  population, 
had  a little  less  than  4 per  cent,  of  the  total  wealth. 

That  the  Working  Class,  representing  55  per  cent,  of  the  population, 
had  a little  more  than  4 per  cent,  of  the  total  wealth. — Socialist  Almanac, 
%>■  H3. 

I It  is  further  pointed  out  in  the  “Almanac”  that  this  4 per  cent,  of 
wealth  held  by  the  working  class  consists  chiefly  of  wealth  in  the  “perishable 
form  of  tools,  instruments,  household  goods,  and  wearing  apparel,  having  a 
use  value,  but  no  exchange  value.” 


10 


THE  WORKING  CLASS. 


wages  do  not  even  supply  the  workingman  with  his  barest  necessi- 
ties; when  the  workingman  not  only  starves  but  starves  rapidly,  all 
work  is  at  an  end. 

The  wages  swing  between  tnese  two  extremes;  they  are  found  to 
be  lower,  the  lower  the  necessities  of  the  workingman,  the  larger  the 
supply  of  labor  in  the  labor  market,  and  the  slighter  the  capacity  of 
the  workingman  for  resistance. 

In  general,  wages  must  be  high  enough  to  keep  the  workingman 
in  a condition  to  work,  or,  to  speak  more  accurately,  they  must  be 
high  enough  to  secure  to  the  capitalist  the  measure  of  labor-power 
which  he  needs.  In  other  words,  wages  must  be  high  enough,  not 
only  to  keep  the  workingman  in  a condition  to  work,  but  also  in 
a condition  to  produce  children,  who  may  be  able  to  replace  him. 
It  follows  that  the  industrial  development  has  a tendency  that  is 
most  pleasing  to  the  capitalist,  to  wit,  to  lower  the  necessities  of  the 
workingman  in  order  that  his  wages  may  be  lower  in  proportion. 

MACHINERY  ENABLES  CAPITALIST  CLASS  TO  EXPLOIT  WOMEN  AND 

CHILDREN. 

There  was  a time  when  skill  and  strength  were  requisites  for  a 
workingman.  The  period  of  apprenticeship  was  then  long,  the  cost 
of  his  training  considerable.  Now,  however,  the  progress  made 
in  the  division  of  labor  and  the  system  of  machinery  render  skill 
and  strength  in  production  more  and  more  superfluous;  they  make 
it  possible  to  substitute  unskilled  and  cheap  workmen  for  skilled 
ones;  and,  consequently,  to  substitute  weak  women  and  even  chil- 
dren in  the  place  of  men.  In  the  early  stages  of  manufac- 
ture this  tendency  is  perceptible;  but  not  until  machinery  is  intro- 
duced into  production  does  the  wholesale  exploitation  commence  of 
women  and  children  of  tender  age — an  exploitation  of  the  most  help- 
less among  the  helpless — who  are  made  a prey  of  shocking  maltreat- 
ment and  abuse.  Thus  machinery  develops  a new  and  wonderful 
quality  in  the  hands  of  the  capitalist. 

Originally,  the  wage-worker  had  to  earn  wages  high  enough  to 
defray  not  only  his  own  expenses,  but  those  of  his  family,  in  order 
to  enable  him  to  propagate  himself  and  to  bequeath  his  labor-power 
to  others.  Without  this  process  on  his  part,  the  heirs  of  the  capital- 
ists would  find  no  proletarians  ready  made  for  exploitation. 

When,  however,  the  wife,  and,  from  early  infancy,  the  children 
of  the  workingmen  are  able  to  take  care  of  themselves,  then  the 
wages  of  the  workingman  can  be  safely  reduced  to  the  level  of  his 
own  personal  needs  without  the  risk  of  stopping  the  supply  of  fresh 
labor-power. 

Over  and  above  this,  the  labor  of  women  and  children  affords 
the  additional  advantage  that  they  offer  less  resistance  than  men; 
and  their  introduction  into  the  ranks  of  the  workers  increases  won- 
derfully the  quantity  of  labor  that  is  offered  for  sale  in  the  market.1^ 

xThe  grand  total  of  women  in  occupations  in  1870  was  1,645,188.  In 
1890  the  number  had  risen  to  3,712,144 — an  increase  in  twenty  years  of 
2,066,956. — Socialist  Almanac,  p.  141. 


DISSOLUTION  OF  THE  PROLETARIAN  FAMILY.  11 

Accordingly,  the  labor  of  women  and  children  does  not  only 
lower  the  necessities  of  the  workingman,  but  it  also  diminishes  his 
capacity  for  resistance  in  that  it  overstocks  the  labor  market;  owing 
to  both  these  circumstances,  it  lowers  the  wages  of  the  workingman.1 


CHAPTER  III. 

DISSOLUTION  OF  THE  PROLETARIAN  FAMILY. 

WOMAN-LABOR  IN  INDUSTRY  DESTROYS  FAMILY  LIFE  OF  THE  WORKINGMAN. 

The  labor  of  woman  in  productive  pursuits  betokens  the  total 
destruction  or  the  family  life  of  the  workingman,  without  substitut- 
ing for  it  a higher  form  of  family  relationship.  The  capitalist  system 
of  production  does  not  yet  generally  destroy  the  single  household  of 
the  workingman,  but  robs  it  of  all  its  bright  sides,  and  leaves  only 
its  dark  ones.  The  activity  of  woman  to-day  in  industrial  pursuits 
does  not  mean  to  her  freedom  from  household  duties;  it  means  to 
her  an  increase  of  her  former  burdens  by  a new  one.  tut  we  can- 
not serve  two  masters.  The  household  of  the  workingman  suffers 
whenever  his  wife  must  help  to  earn  the  daily  bread.  What  present 
society  puts  in  the  place  of  the  individual  household  and  family, 
which  it  destroys,  are  miserable  substitutes:  souphouses  and  day- 
nurseries, , where  the  offals  of  the  physical  and  mental  sustenance  of 
the  rich  are  cast  to  the  lower  classes. 

CAPITALIST  CLASS  ENDEAVORING  TO  ABOLISH  THE  FAMILY. 

Socialists  are  charged  with  an  intent  to  abolish  the  family. 
We  do  know  that  every  system  of  production  has  had  a special  form 
of  household,  to  which  corresponds  a special  system  of  family  rela- 
tionship. We  do  not  consider  the  existing  form  of  the  family  the 
highest  possible  nor  the  last  utterance  upon  the  subject;  and  we  do 
expect  that  a new  and  improved  social  system  may  yet  develop  a 
new  and  higher  form  of  family  relationship.  But  to  hold  this  view 
is  a very  different  thing  from  striving  to  dissolve  all  family  bonds. 
They  who  do  destroy  the  family  bonds — who  not  only  mean  to  but 
who  in  fact  do  destroy  them  right  under  our  own  eyes — they  are,  not 
the  Socialists,  but  the  capitalists  themselves.  Many  a slave-holder 
has  before  this  torn  husband  from  wife,  and  parents  from  grown-up 
children;  but  the  capitalists  have  improved  upon  the  abominations 
of  slavery:  they  tear  the  suckling  from  the  breast  of  its  mother, 

1In  the  article  in  “The  Socialist  Almanac”  on  “Child  Labor,”  the  author 
shows  that  the  figures  of  the  census  department  relative  to  employment  of 
children  in  industry  are  “grossly  inaccurate,”  and  then  adds  : 

“But  there  stands  glaring  above  all  this  statistical  darkness  the  por- 
tentous and  undeniable  fact  that,  with  a total  school  population  between  5 
and  18  years  numbering  20,865,000  in  1896,  the  average  school  attendance 
was  only  9,747,000,  or  46.7  per  cent.,  and  that  the  average  school  term  for 
the  whole  country  was  only  140  days.  From  which  it  may  be  safely  asserted 
that  ignorance  is  growing  apace  throughout  the  United  States  and  that  the 
number  of  children  and  yourhs  between  the  said  ages  actually  employed  for  a 
more  or  less  extended  portion  of  the  year  in  mean,  hard,  and  brain-stunting 
labor  cannot  be  less  and  is  probably  more  than  5,000,000.” 


12 


THE  WORKING  CLASS. 


and  compel  her  to  intrust  it  to  strangers’  hands.  And  yet  a society 
in  which  hundreds  of  thousands  of  such  instances  are  of  daily 
occurrence,  a society  whose  luminaries  promote  “benevolent”  insti- 
tutions for  the  purpose  of  making  easy  the  separation  of  the 
mothers  from  their  babes,  such  a society  has  the  effrontery  to  accuse 
the  Socialists  of  contemplating  the  abolition  of  the  family  simply 
because  they,  basing  their  opinion  upon  the  fact  that  the  “family” 
has  ever  been  one  of  the  reflexes  of  the  system  of  production,  foresee 
that  further  changes  in  that  system  must  also  result  in  a more  per- 
fect system  of  family  relationship. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PROSTITUTION. 

CAPITALIST  SYSTEM  OF  PRODUCTION  PROMOTES  PROSTITUTION. 

Hand  in  hand  with  the  accusation  on  the  subject  of  the  family 
bonds  goes  the  accusation  that  Socialists  aim  at  a community  of 
wives.  This  charge  is  as  false  as  the  otner.  Socialists,  on  the  con- 
trary, maintain  that  just  the  reverse  of  a community  in  wives,  and 
of  all  sexual  oppression  and  license,  to  wit,  ideal  love,  will  be  the 
foundation  of  matrimonial  connections  in  a Socialist  Common- 
wealth, and  that  pure  love  can  only  prevail  in  such  a social  system. 
What,  on  the  other  hand,  do  we  see  to-day? 

The  irrational  system  of  modern  production  tears  the  sexes 
apart.  It  builds  up  sTie-towns  in  New  England  and  Tic-towns  in  the 
mining  districts  of  Pennsylvania,  Illinois,  Ohio,  and  the  farther 
West,  thereby  directly  promoting  and  inciting  prostitution  as  a 
natural  and  inevitable  result.  Furthermore,  helpless  women,  forced 
to  earn  their  living  in  the  factories,  shops,  and  mines,  fall  a prey  to 
capitalist  cupidity;  the  capitalist  takes  advantage  of  their  inexperi- 
ence, offers  them  wages  too  slight  for  their  support,  and  hints  at,  or 
even  brazenly  refers  them  to,  prostitution  as  a means  of  supplement- 
ing their  income.1  Everywhere  the  increase  of  female  labor  in  in- 
dustry is  accompanied  by  an  increase  of  prostitution.  In  the  mod- 
ern State,  where  Christianity  is  preached  and  piousness  is  at  a 
premium,  many  a “thriving”  branch  of  industry  is  found  whose 
working  women  are  paid  so  poorly  that  they  would  be  compelled  to 
starve  unless  they  prostituted  themselves;  and,  wonderful  to  say, 
in  such  instances  the  capitalist  will  ever  be  heard  to  protest  that 
these  small  wages  are  indispensable  to  enable  him  to  compete  suc- 

xWe  only  need  to J consider  the  miserable  wages  earned  by  the  greater 
number  of  workwomen,  wages  upon  which  it  is  impossible  to  exist,  and 
which  the  recipients  are  forced  to  eke  out  by  prostitution,  to  understand 
why  things  are  as  they  are.  Some  employers  ere  infamous  enough  to  excus* 
the  lowness  of  the  salary  by  pointing  to  this  means  of  indemnification.  Suclfi 
Is  the  position  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  seamstresses,  dressmakers,  milli- 
ners, and  workwomen  in  all  kinds  of  factories. — “Woman  in  the  Past,  Present, 
and  Future,”  by  August  Bebel. 


EARLY  DAYS  OF  THE  WORKING  PROLETARIAT.  13 

cessfully  in  the  market,  and  to  maintain  his  establishment  in  a 
‘'thriving”  condition.1 

UNDER  CAPITALISM  PROSTITUTION  BECOMES  A PILLAR  OF  SOCIETY. 

Prostitution  is  as  old  as  the  contrast  between  rich  and  poor. 
At  one  time,  however,  prostitutes  constituted  a middle  class  between 
beggars  and  thieves;  they  were  then  an  article  of  luxury  which 
society  indulged  in,  but  the  loss  of  which  would  in  no  way  have 
endangered  its  existence.  To-day,  however,  it  is  no  longer  the 
females  of  the  slums  alone,  but  working  women  who  are  compelled 
to  sell  their  bodies  for  money.  This  latter  sale  is  no  longer  simply 
a matter  of  luxury,  it  has  become  one  of  the  foundations  upon  which 
production  is  carried  on.  Under  the  capitalist  system  of  production, 
prostitution  becomes  a pillar  of  society.  What  the  defenders  of  this 
social  system  falsely  charge  Socialists  with,  is  the  very  thing  they 
are  guilty  of  themselves:  Community  of  wives  is  a feature  of  capi- 
talism. Indeed  such  deep  roots  has  this  system  of  community  of 
wives  cast  in  modern  society  that  its  representatives  agree  in  declar- 
ing prostitution  to  be  a necessary  thing.  They  cannot  understand 
that  the  abolition  of  the  proletariat  implies  the  abolition  of  prosti- 
tution. So  deep  are  they  sunk  in  intellectual  stagnation  that  they 
cannot  conceive  a social  system  without  community  of  wives. 

But  be  it  noted,  community  of  wives  has  ever  been  an  invention 
of  the  upper  layers  of  society,  never  of  the  proletariat.  The  com- 
munity of  wives  is  one  of  the  modes  of  exploiting  the  proletariat; 
it  is  not  Socialism;  it  is  the  exact  opposite  of  Socialism. 


CHAPTER  V. 

EARLY  DAYS  OF  THE  WAGE-WORKING  PROLETARIAT. 

CONDITION  OF  THE  WORKING  CLASS  DURING  EARLY  DAYS  OF  CAPITALISM. 

The  capitalist  system  of  production  at  first  drew  its  wage-work- 
ers from  the  servant  class,  the  menials,  and  the  slums.  It  needed 
not  so  much  able  as  patient,  resistless  workers,  disposed  to  submit 
meekly  to  the  requirements  of  a large  mill  or  mine,  which  could  run 
smoothly  only  in  case  eacn  of  its  innumerable  wheels,  whether  ani- 
mate or  inanimate,  fulfilled  punctually  and  well  the  movements  to 
which  it  was  assigned.  Such  being  the  character  of  the  bulk  of  the 
labor  upon  which  the  large  capitalists  drew  originally,  it  followed 
that  the  treatment  to  which  these  submitted  established  also  the 
standard  for  the  treatment  which  the  capitalists  meant  to  bestow 
upon  their  workmen  in  general.  Labor,  whose  ennobling  influence 

xThe  struggle  for  existence,  which  is  becoming  fiercer  year  by  year,  not 
infrequently  compels  men  and  women  to  commit  actions  and  suffer  indignities 
that  would  otherwise  fill  them  with  disgust.  For  Instance,  it  was  ascertained 
in  Munich.  Germany,  in  1877,  that  among  the  registered  prostitutes  under 
% the  surveillance  of  the  police  no  fewer  than  203  were  wives  of  day-laborers 
't  and  artisans.  And  how  many  married  women  are  driven  by  hunger  to  carry 
on  this  disgraceful  trade,  without  subjecting  themselves  to  police  .control 
which  so  shamefully  violates  every  feeling  of  decency  and  of  personal  dig- 
nity?— “Woman  in  the  Past,  Present,  and  Future.” 


14 


THE  WORKING  CLASS. 


capitalist  moralists  and  economists  love  to  descant  upon,  became  for 
the  whole  proletariat  a source  not  of  dignity,  but  of  further  degra- 
dation. The  resistlessness  of  the  working  people  made  it  possible 
for  the  capitalists  to  extend  the  hours  of  work  indefinitely.  Unless 
forced  to  it,  capital  will  allow  to  the  proletariat  leisure  neither  for 
rest  nor  for  culture.  Where  it  is  not  checked,  it  will  drive  the 
worker  to  death.  If  between  the  hours  of  sleep  and  work  there  be  a 
short  respite,  it  is  just  long  enough  to  satisfy  the  most  transient 
pleasures,  to  dull  the  sense  of  misery  in  the  fumes  of  alcohol  or  in 
the  indulgences  of  sexual  intercourse.  The  working  in  common 
of  men  and  women,  adults  and  children,  which,  if  carried  on  by 
happy,  free,  and  conscientious  beings,  can  be  a source  of  the  highest 
intellectual  enjoyment  and  moral  elevation  for  all  concerned,  became 
in  the  mines  and  mills  of  capital  a fresh  stimulant  to  the  demoraliz- 
ing and  enervating  influences  which  spread  like  pest  among  the 
proletariat. 

THE  WORKING  PROLETARIAT  ORIGINALLY  IS  MERGED  WITH  THE  SLUMS. 

To  this  circumstance  is  to  be  ascribed  the  fact  that  in  the  early 
days  of  large  capitalist  production  the  working  proletariat  was  hardly 
to  be  distinguished  from  the  slums.  How  low  the  former  had 
sunk  in  crime,  drunkenness,  vulgarity,  and  filth — both  physical  and 
moral — appears  graphically  from  the  strong,  yet  not  overdrawn,  pic- 
ture presented  by  Frederick  Engels  in  his  classic  work,  “The  Condi- 
tion of  the  Working  Class  in  England”  during  the  first  decades  of 
this  century.1  In  the  United  States  the  working  proletariat  was 
saved  the  bitterness  of  this  experience  to  the  extent  that  it  was 
forced  upon  its  European  brothers.  Owing  to  the  conditions  of  the 
country,  owing  to  the  absence  in  any  large  numbers  of  the  slow  ac- 
cretions of  generations  of  exploited  classes  previous  to  the  time 
when  capitalist  large  production  began  to  unfold  its  wings  among 
us,  the  proportion  of  the  slums  to  the  number  of  working  proleta- 
rians was  not  here,  as  in  Europe,  large  enough  to  degrade  the  latter 
quite  to  the  level  of  the  former.  Nevertheless,  the  working  proleta- 


xThe  streets  are  often  so  narrow  that  a person  ran  step  from  the  window 
of  one  house  into  that  of  its  opposite  neighbor,  while  the  houses  are  piled  so 
high,  story  upon  story,  that  the  light  can  scarcely  penetrate  into  the  court  or 
alley  that  lies  between.  In  this  part  of  the  city  there  are  neither  sewers  nor 
other  drains,  nor  even  privies  belonging  to  the  houses.  In  consequence,  all 
refuse,  garbage,  and  excrements  of  at  least  50.000  persons  are  thrown  into 
the  gutters  every  night,  so  that,  in  spite  of  all  street  sweeping,  a mass  of 
dried  filth  and  foul  vapors  are  created,  which  not  only  offend  the  sight  and 
smell,  but  endanger  the  health  of  all  the  inhabitants  in  the  highest  degree. 
♦ * * * The  houses  of  the  poor  are  generally  filthy,  and  are 

evidently  never  cleansed.  They  consist  in  most  cases  of  a single  room  which, 
while  subject  to  the  worst  ventilation,  is  yet  usually  kept  cold  by  the  broken 
and  badly-fitting  windows,  and  is  sometimes  damp,  and  partly  below  ground 
level,  always  badly  furnished  and  thoroughly  uncomfortable,  a straw-hey 
often  serving  the  whole  family  for  a bed.  upon  which  men  and  women.  youift 
and  old,  sleep  in  revolting  conditions.  Water  can  only  be  had  from  the  publrl 
pumps,  and  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  it  naturally  fosters  all  possible  filth. — 
From  the  chapter  on  “The  Great  Towns”  in  Engels’  “Condition  of  the  Work- 
ing Class  in  England.” 


UPLIFTING  OF  THE  PROLETARIAT. 


15 


riat,  clad  with  the  dignity  of  its  class,  is  even  here  a historic  figure 
of  a comparatively  recent  date, 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  UPLIFTING  OF  THE  WORKING  PROLETARIAT. 

The  word  “proletariat”  conveyed  at  one  time  in  the  history  of 
capitalist  production  the  idea  of  extreme  degradation.  Even  to-day 
there  are  people  who  entertain  this  notion,  and  among  them  not  a 
few  who  claim  to  be  abreast  of  the  times.  This,  however,  arises 
from  a woeful  confusion  of  thought.  However  numerous  the  ex- 
ternal marks  may  have  been  which,  at  one  time,  the  working  prole- 
tariat had  in  common  with  the  slums,  even  then  the  two  were  sepa- 
rated by  a deep  chasm. 

The  slums  have  continued  to  be  essentially  the  same,  in  what- 
ever historic  epoch  and  under  whatever  system  they  may  have  made 
their  appearance.  The  slums  of  New  York,  Chicago,  San  Francisco, 
or  any  other  large  modern  center  of  population,  are  hard  to  dis- 
tinguish from  those  of  ancient  Rome.  On  the  other  hand,  the  mod- 
ern working  proletariat  is  a peculiar  phenomenon,  never  before  no- 
ticed in  the  history  of  mankind. 

CONTRASTS  BETWEEN  THE  SLUMS  AND  THE  WORKING  PROLETARIAT. 

Between  the  slums  and  the  working  proletariat  of  capitalist  pro- 
duction there  is  above  all  the  immense  and  fundamental  difference 
that  the  former  always  were  and  still  continue  to  be  parasites, 
whereas  the  latter  is  one  of  the  principal  roots  of  modern  society — 
a root  that  develops,  not  only  into  leading  importance,  but  into  the 
only  one  from  which  society  draws  its  strength  and  support.  The 
working  proletariat  is  a propertiless,  but  not  an  almstaking,  element, 
feo  far  from  its  being  supported  by  society,  it  supports  society  with 
its  labor.  True  enough,  during  the  early  days  of  the  capitalist  sys- 
tem, the  working  proletariat  looked  upon  itself  as  a pauper  class, 
and  upon  the  capitalist  who  exploited  it  as  a benefactor,  as  the  pro- 
vider of  work,  and,  consequently,  as  the  bread-giver.  Of  course,  this 
patriarchal  relation  is  highly  pleasing  to  the  capitalists;  they  still 
demand  from  their  workingmen  for  the  wages  paid  to  them,  not 
only  the  labor  contracted  for,  but  also  humilty  and  gratitude. 

But  the  capitalist  system  can  nowhere  proceed  very  far  without 
the  patriarchal  conditions  that  exist  at  its  inception  going  wholly  by 
the  board.  However  enslaved  and  ignorant  the  workingmen  may  at 
any  time  be,  they  realize,  sooner  or  later,  that  they  are  the  bread- 
givers  of  the  capitalists,  and  not  vice  versa.  While  they  remain 
poor,  or  even  become  poorer,  the  capitalist  becomes  ever  richer.  And 
when  they  demand  more  bread  from  the  capitalist,  from  this  would-be 
patriarch,  he  gives  them  a stone. 

r The  working  proletarians  differ  from  the  slums  and  from  the 
servant  and  menial  classes  in  that  they  do  not  live  upon  the  ex- 
ploitation carried  on  by  the  exploiters;  and  they  differ  from  the 


16 


THE  WORKING  CLASS. 


workers  under  former  systems  of  production  in  that  they  do  not 
live  and  labor  together  with  tneir  exploiters,  and  that  all  the  per- 
sonal bonds  and  relations  that  existed  between  these  have  wholly 
disappeared  between  the  modern  employer  and  employee.  They  live 
in  miserable  tenements  or  rickety  frame  houses  that  are  a libel 
upon  the  word  “home,”  while  they  rear  palaces  for  the  exploiter; 
they  famish  while  they  spread  for  him  a luxurious  feast;  they  go 
unclad,  while  they  prepare  for  him  costly  raiment;  they  toil  and 
moil  till  they  drop  with  exhaustion  to  furnish  him  and  his  the 
means  whereby  to  kill  time. 

WHY  THE  WORKING  CLASS  HATES  AND  DESPISES  THE  RICH. 

The  contrast  between  these  two  elements  is  a very  different  one 
from  that  between  the  rich  and  the  poor  man  of  precapitalist  days; 
and  very  different  also  between  the  capitalist  and  the  “small  man” 
of  to-day.  The  latter  envies  the  rich  man,  whom  he  looks  up  to  with 
admiration,  who  is  the  example  he  wouid  imitate,  the  ideal  he  holds 
up  to  himself;  he  wishes  to  be  in  that  capitalist’s  place,  and  become 
an  exploiter  like  him;  he  never  for  a moment  thinks  of  abolishing 
the  system  of  exploitation.  The  working  proletariat,  on  the  con- 
trary, does  not  envy  the  modern  rich  man;  it  does  not  wish  itseif 
in  his  place;  it  hates  and  despises  him;  it  hates  him  as  the  ex- 
ploiter; it  despises  him  as  a drone.  At  first,  the  working  proleta- 
rian hates  only  those  capitalists  with  whom  he  is  brought  into  direct 
contact,  but  soon  he  realizes  the  fact  that  all  of  them  stand  in  the 
same  posture  towards  him,  and  his  hatred,  which  originally  was  per- 
sonal, develops  into  a conscious  hostility  towards  the  whole  capital- 
ist class. 

CLASS  HATRED  NOT  THE  RESULT  OF  SOCIALIST  PROPAGANDA. 

This  hostility  towards  exploitation  itself  is  one  of  the  first  dis- 
tinguishing marks  of  the  working  proletariat.  This  class  hatred  is 
by  no  means  a result*  of  socialist  propaganda;  it  was  noticeable  long 
before  the  influence  of  Socialism  began  to  make  itself  felt  among 
the  working  classes.  Among  the  workers  under  former  social  sys- 
tems, such  a well  developed  class  hatred  as  exists  to-day  was  impos- 
sible; the  intimate  personal  relations  that  existed  between  them  and 
their  “masters”  excluded  all  thought  of  such  class  antipathies;  hos- 
tilities might  and  did  often  break  out  between  the  master  and  his 
underlings  personally,  but  these  could  never  be  carried  beyond  a 
certain  point  without  forthwith  stopping  production  itself;  and, 
as  a result,  whatever  lengths  they  went  to,  reconciliation  always  fol- 
lowed. Under  the  capitalist  system,  however,  the  workers  may  en- 
tertain the  most  bitter  enmity  against  their  employers  without  pro- 
duction being  thereby  interfered  with,  and  even  without  the  em- 
ployer being  at  all  aware  of  it. 

This  class  hatred  expresses  itself  at  first  only  timidly  and  iif* 
isolated  instances.  If  it  takes  some  time  for  the  working  proletariat 
to  realize  that  magnanimity  is  the  last  thing  that  moves  the  em- 


UPLIFTING  OF  THE  PROLETARIAT.  17 

ployer  to  furnish  it  work,  it  takes  still  longer  for  it  to  gather  courage 
to  enter  into  an  open  conflict  with  the  “boss.”1 

The  slums  are  cowardly  and  humble;  they  feel  themselves 
superfluous  and  know  that  they  lack  all  material  standing.  Sim- 
ilarly are  the  early  characteristics  of  the  working  proletariat.  It 
resented  the  ill-treatment  to  which  it  was  subjected,  but  protested 
only  silently;  clenched  its  fist  in  its  pockets;  and  as  a result  of  this, 
its  indignation  was  wont  to  vent  itself — as  it  unfortunately  still 
does,  here  and  there,  among  the  least  informed — in  deeds  of  thought- 
less passion  or  secret  crime. 

The  sense  of  conscious  strength  and  the  spirit  of  resistance 
develop  themselves  among  the  working  proletariat  only  after  it  has 
awakened  to  the  understanding  of  the  community  of  interests  that 
binds  its  members,  and  of  the  solidarity  of  its  ranks.  With  the 
quickening  of  the  feeling  of  solidarity  begins  the  moral  new  birth  of 
the  working  proletariat,  and  its  uplifting  from  the  swamp  in  which 
it,  together  with  the  slums,  originally  is  immersed.2 

CAPITALIST  CLASS  UNCONSCIOUSLY  TRAINS  THE  WORKING  CLASS  IN  THE 
METHODS  REQUIRED  FOR  THE  OVERTHROW  OF  CAPITALISM. 

The  conditions  themselves  under  which  labor  is  performed  in 
the  capitalist  system  point  out  to  the  proletariat  the  necessity  of 
firmly  holding  together,  of  moving  in  a body,  and  of  subordinating 
the  individual  to  the  whole.  While,  in  the  classic  days  of  handicraft, 
each  individual  produced  a whole  article  himself,  capitalist  industry 
is  based  upon  co-operative  labor.  Here  the  individual  worker  can 
do  nothing  without  his  fellow-worker.  If  they  start  to  work  united 
and  planfully,  the  capacity  of  each  is  doubled  and  trebled.  Thus 
their  labor  itself  brings  home  to  them  the  power  of  union,  and 
develops  among  them  the  sense  of  voluntary  and  gladsome  discipline 
— both  of  which  are  the  conditions  precedent  for  socialist  produc- 
tion, and  are  likewise  the  conditions  precedent  for  the  successful 
struggle  of  the  proletariat  against  the  system  of  exploitation  that 
prevails  under  capitalist  production.  And  thus  it  happens  that 

1In  the  patriarchal  relation  that  hypocritically  concealed  the  slavery  of 
the  worker,  the  latter  must  have  remained  an  intellectual  zero,  totally  igno- 
rant of  his  own  interest,  a mere  private  individual.  Only  when  estranged 
from  his  employer,  when  convinced  that  the  sole  bond  between  employer  and 
employee  is  the  bond  of  pecuniary  profit,  when  the  sentimental  bond  between 
them,  which  stood  not  the  slightest  test,  had  wholly  fallen  away,  then  only 
did  the  worker  begin  to  recognize  his  own  interests  and  develop  independ- 
ently ; then  only  did  he  cease  to  be  the  slave  of  the  bourgeoisie  in  his 
thoughts,  feelings,  and  the  expression  of  his  will.  And  to  this  end  manu- 
facture on  a grand  scale  and  in  great  cities  has  most  largely  contributed. — 
“Condition  of  the  Working  Class  in  England,”  p.  123. 

2If  the  centralization  of  population  stimulates  and  develops  the  property- 
holding class,  it  forces  the  development  of  the  workers  yet  more  rapidly. 
..The  workers  begin  to  feel  as  a class,  as  a whole  ; they  begin  to  perceive  that, 
y hough  feeble  as  individuals,  they  form  a power  united : their  separation 
Trom  the  bourgeoisie,  the  development  of  views  peculiar  to  the  workers  and 
corresponding  to  their  position  in  life,  is  fostered,  the  consciousness  of  oppres- 
sion awakens,  and  the  workers  attain  social  and  political  importance. — “Con- 
dition of  ^he  Working  Class  in  England,”  p.  122. 


18 


THE  WORKING  CLASS. 

capitalism  itself  trains  the  proletarians  in  the  methods  requisite 
for  its  own  overthrow,  and  educates  them  in  the  system  of  labor  that 
will  be  required  of  them  in  socialist  society. 

More  powerfully,  perhaps,  than  co-operation  in  labor  does  the 
equality  in  the  present  conditions  of  work  tend  to  awaken  among 
the  proletarians  the  sense  of  solidarity  among  themselves.  In  a 
modern  well-developed  mill  there  is  as  good  as  no  distinction  of 
rank,  no  hierarchy,  among  the  workers.  The  higher  posts  are,  as 
a rule,  inacessible  to  the  proletarians;  at  all  events,  they  are  so  few 
that  they  do  not  affect  the  masses.  Slight  is  the  number  of  those 
who  can  be  corrupted  by  these  favorite  posts.  For  the  large  ma- 
jority the  conditions  of  labor  are  identical;  to  the  individual  all 
possibility  is  shut  off  of  lifting  Irriself  up  alone;  he  can  better  his 
condition  only  if  the  condition  of  all  his  fellow-toilers  is  bettered. 
The  capitalist  realizes  this  fact  and  its  effects  upon  his  men,  and  in 
not  a few  cases  he  tries  to  counteract  both  by  the  introduction  of 
artificial  distinctions  in  his  mills,  to  the  end  of  throwing  the  apple 
of  discord  among  the  workers;  but  such  is  the  leveling  influence 
and  power  of  modern  large  production  that  all  such  schemes  are  un- 
able to  undermine  permanently  the  sense  of  solidarity  which  it 
evokes  in  the  ranks  of  the  working  proletariat.  The  longer  the 
capitalist  system  of  production  lasts,  all  the  more  powerfully  does 
the  solidarity  of  the  proletariat  manifest  itself,  all  the  stronger  does 
it  cast  its  roots,  and  all  the  more  prominently  does  it  stand  out 
as  one  of  the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  the  working  pro- 
letariat. 

Among  the  slums,  among  the  menials,  there  can  be  no  thought 
of  solidarity.  It  was  among  the  journeymen  under  the  old  feudal 
and  guild  systems  that  the  solidarity  of  the  exploited  class  against 
the  exploiters  first  cropped  up;  but  the  solidarity  of  the  modern 
working  proletariat  has  taken  long  strides  beyond  that  of  the  ex- 
ploited class  under  the  previous  system  of  production.  Neither 
limited  itself  to  the  confines  of  one  and  the  same  industry;  the 
same  as  the  modern  working  proletariat,  so  did  its  prototype  of  the 
guild  days  arrive  slowly  at  the  perception  of  the  fact  that  the 
worker  knocks  himself  everywhere  against  the  identical  adversary, 
and  has  everywhere  the  same  interests.  The  journeyman’s  old 
established  national  organizations  were  necessarily  limited, 
as  the  State  or  nation  was  then  still  a very  imperfect  conception. 
The  modern  working  proletariat  is  not  organized  nationally  only,  it 
has  widened  its  basis;  despite  all  wars  and  hostilities  between  one 
nation  and  another,  it  has  organized  itself  internationally;  the 
the  working  proletariat  of  all  countries  are  united. 

CONTRASTS  IN  THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  WORKERS  UNDER  FEUDALISM  AND 
UNDER  CAPITALISM. 

Already  in  the  days  of  the  journeymen  mechanics  the  begin- 
nings may  be  found  of  international  organizations.  The  exploited 
classes  of  those  days  showed  they  were  able  to  rise  above  national^ 
barriers;  but  there  was  one  barrier  above  which  they  could  not  lift 
themselves — that  of  their  own  trade.  The  hatmaker,  for  instance. 


UPLIFTING  OF  THE  PROLETARIAT.  19 

of  one  country  felt  one  with  those  of  others,  but  the  shoemakers, 
tailors,  and  other  workers  of  his  own  country  remained  strangers 
to  him.  At  that  time  the  various  trades  were  separated  by  3harp 
lines;  the  applicant  for  admission  to  any  of  them  was  held  to  a long 
apprenticeship  before  he  became  a journeyman,  and  he  remained 
loyal  to  his  trade  for  life.  The  power  and  prosperity  of  his  trade 
were  his  own;  although,  in  a certain  sense,  the  journeyman’s  inter- 
ests were  opposed  to  those  of  his  guild  master,  yet  were  they  op- 
posed to  those  of  both  master  and  journeyman  of  all  other  trades. 
The  spectacle  was  frequent  during  the  most  flourishing  period  of  the 
guilds  that  the  journeymen  of  the  various  trades  were  involved  in 
fierce  strifes  with  one  another. 

The  capitalist  system  of  production,  on  the  contrary,  throws 
the  various  trades  together  and  mixes  them  up  inextricably.  In  a 
capitalist  establishment,  people  of  different  trades  are  seen  generally 
working  together,  and  jointly  operating  towards  a common  end. 
Furthermore,  the  capitalist  system  has  the  tendency  to  wipe  out 
the  very  idea  of  a trade  in  production;  the  machine  shortens  the 
time  of  apprenticeship,  that  formerly  extended  over  years,  down 
to  weeks  and  days;  it  makes  it  possible  for  the  several  workmen  to 
pass  from  one  occupation  to  another  without  great  difficulty,  and  it 
often  even  compels  them  to  the  change  by  frequently  rendering  them 
superfluous  in  their  former  lines,  throwing  them  out  of  work,  and 
compelling  them  to  look  for  another  job.  The  freedom  in  the  choice 
of  a pursuit  which  the  Philistines  fear  to  lose  in  socialist  society,  is 
a thing  that  has  lost  all  meaning  to  the  working  class  under  the 
present  system. 

UNDER  CAPITALISM  ALL  SECTIONS  OF  THE  WORKING  CLASS  ARE  WELDED 

TOGETHER. 

Under  such  circumstances,  it  has  become  an  easy  matter  for 
the  workingman  to  lift  himself  above  the  barriers  before  which  the 
journeyman  of  old  halted.  The  sense  of  solidarity  among  the  mod- 
ern working  proletariat  is,  accordingly,  not  only  international,  It 
now  extends  over  the  whole  working  class. 

Already  in  the  Middle  Ages  there  was  a variety  of  forms  of 
wage  labor;  neither  are  the  conflicts  between  wage-workers  and 
their  exploiters  something  new;  but  it  was  not  until  the  rule  of  the 
capitalist  system  came  into  force  that  the  spectacle  was  presented 
of  the  rise  of  an  embattled  class  of  wage-workers,  conscious  of  the 
oneness  of  their  interests,  and  ever  more  ready  to  subordinate  to 
the  interests  of  their  class,  as  a whole,  not  only  their  personal,  but 
also  their  local  and,  in  so  far  as  these  still  continue  to  exist,  their 
separate  trade  interests.  It  is  only  in  our  own  century  that  the 
struggles  of  the  wage-workers,  the  working  proletariat,  against  ex- 
ploitation assume  the  character  of  a class  struggle.  It  is  onlv  by 
virtue  thereof  that  these  struggles  are  enabled  to  aim  at  a higher 
^goal  than  that  of  simply  removing  this  or  that  objectionable  feature 
of  the  existing  system,  and  that  the  Labor  Movement  has  become  a 
revolutionary  movement. 

Under  these  conditions,  the  horizon  of  the  working  class  broad- 


20 


THE  WORKING  CLASS. 


ens  steadily.  This  holds  good,  in  the  first  place,  with  regard  to  the 
working  proletariat  employed  in  large  production;  but  the  same  as 
the  industrial  form  of  capital  becomes  more  and  more  the  standard 
for  all  capital,  and  even  for  all  economic  undertakings  within  the 
reach  of  capitalist  nations,  so  likewise  do  the  thoughts  and  senti- 
ments of  that  portion  of  the  proletariat  that  is  engaged  in  large 
production  strike  the  keynote  for  the  thoughts  and  sentiments  of 
the  whole  wage-working  class.  The  consciousness  of  the  unity  of  the 
interests  of  all  takes  possession  of  one  set  of  workers  after  another, 
just  as  fast  as  the  all-pervading  influence  of  large  production  forces 
itself  into  the  various  classes  of  industries. 

Next  follow  the  workers  engaged  in  non-productive  occupations 
— in  trade,  communication  and  transportation,  etc.  Lastly,  the  agri- 
cultural wage  proletariat  will  finally  be  drawn  in  by  the  recognition 
of  the  oneness  of  its  interests  with  those  of  all  other  wage-work- 
ers, a recognition  that  is  being  hastened  by  the  introduction  of  capi- 
talist methods  into  the  old  and  until  now,  to  a great  extent,  patri- 
archally  conducted  system  of  agriculture,  and,  consequently,  by  the 
inevitable  transformation  of  the  farm-hands  into  out-and-out  wage- 
working proletarians,  wholly  disconnected  by  any  personal  bonds 
from  the  family  of  the  employer.  Progress  in  this  direction  from 
this  source  is  already  perceptible. 

Thus,  by  degrees,  all  the  sections  of  the  working  class  are  being 
welded  into  one,  animated  by  the  spirit  of  the  proletariat  employed 
in  large  production,  and  which  is  steadily  on  the  increase.  Steadily 
the  whole  mass  is  being  leavened  by  the  spirit  of  comradeship,  of 
discipline,  and  of  hostility  to  the  capitalist  class  that  is  peculiar  to 
the  workers  in  large  production;  and  above  all,  hand  in  hand  with 
this  progress,  the  unquenchable  thirst  for  knowledge,  which  is  one 
of  the  leading  features  of  the  progressive  proletarians,  permeates  all 
the  ranks  of  t*^ir  class. 

Thus,  by  degrees,  there  rises  out  of  the  despised,  maltreated, 
degraded  proletariat  a historic  power  before  which  the  powers  that 
be  have  begun  to  tremble.  Thus  a new  class  is  in  the  process  of 
formation  that  brings  with  it  a new  code  of  morals  and  new  phil- 
osophy; a class  that  grows  daily  in  numbers,  in  compactness,  in 
consciousness  of  its  mission,  in  intelligence,  and  into  an  economic 
necessity. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

COUNTER  TENDENCIES  THAT  UPLIFT  AND  ABASE  THE 
PROLETARIAT. 

The  uplifting  of  the  proletariat  from  its  degradation  is  an  in- 
evitable and  natural  process;  but  the  process  is  neither  a peaceful 
nor  a uniform  one.  The  tendencies  of  the  capitalist  system  of  pro- 
duction are  to  debase  the  working  population.  The  moral  new  birth 
of  the  proletariat  is  possible  only  by  antagonizing  these  tendenciv 
and  their  promoters,  the  capitalists;  and  this  can  be  done  only  by 
imparting  sufficient  strength  to  the  counter  tendencies  that  are  born 


COUNTER  TENDENCIES.  21 

of  the  new  conditions  in  the  camp  of  the  proletariat  itself,  the  con- 
ditions under  which  the  working  class  toils  and  lives.  The  debasing 
tendencies  of  the  capitalist  system  are,  however,  very  different  at 
different  periods,  in  different  localities,  and  in  different  industries: 
they  depend  upon  the  condition  of  the  market,  upon  the  degree  of 
competition  among  the  several  establishments,  upon  the  grade 
reached  in  the  development  of  machinery  in  the  respective  branches 
of  industry,  upon  the  extent  and  measure  of  the  clearness  with 
which  the  capitalists  understand  their  class  interests,  etc.1  Likewise 
do  the  counter  tendencies  that  develop  in  the  several  layers  of  the 
proletariat  depend  upon  manifold  circumstances:  they  depend,  in 
turn,  upon  the  customs  and  wants  of  the  population  from  whose 
ranks  the  class  of  the  proletariat  has  been  recruited;  upon  the  de- 
gree of  skill  or  strength  required  in  the  respective  industries;  upon 
the  extent  to  which  woman  and  child  labor  prevails;  upon  the  size 
of  the  industrial  reserve  army,  which  is  very  different  in  several  in 
dustries;  upon  the  clearness  with  which  the  working  people  perceive 
their  class  interests;  and,  lastly,  upon  the  nature  of  the  work, 
whether  it  isolates  or  brings  the  workers  together. 

Bach  of  these  several  sets  of  circumstances  in  the  several  in- 
dustries and  subdivisions  of  the  proletariat  vary  not  only  greatly, 
but  they  are  subject  to  constant  changes  owing  to  the  uninterrupted 
course  of  the  technical  and  economic  revolution  in  production 
Every  day  capital  subjects  some  new  section  of  the  country  and 
some  new  branch  of  industry  to  its  process  of  exploitation  and  re- 
duces the  respective  population  to  the  level  of  the  proletarians: 
every  day  new  branches  of  industry  spring  into  life,  and  existing 
ones  are  revolutionized.  The  spectacle  presented  at  the  inception  of 
the  capitalist  system  of  production  is  seen  to-day.  Even  now,  new 
layers  of  the  population  are  thrown  into  the  class  of  the  working 
proletariat,  others  sink  below  into  the  slums,  and  others  again  rise 
above  the  lowest  grades;  among  the  working  proletarians  them- 
selves there  is  a constant  flux  and  reflux  noticeable;  some  portions 
are  seen  to  rise,  others  to  decline,  according  as  the  uplifting  or  the 
depressing  tendencies  may  temporarily  have  the  upper  hand. 

Competition  is  the  completest  expression  of  the  battle  of  all  against  all 
which  rules  modern  civil  society.  This  battle,  a battle  for  life,  for  existence, 
for  everything,  in  case  of  need  a battle  of  life  and  death,  is  fought  not 
between  the  different  classes  of  society  only,  but  also  between  the  individual 
members  of  these  classes.  Each  is  in  the  way  of  the  other,  and  each  seeks 
to  crowd  out  all  who  are  in  his  way,  and  to  put  himself  in  their  place.  The 
workers  are  in  constant  competition  among  themselves,  as  the  members  of  the 
bourgeoisie  among  themselves.  The  power-loom  weaver  is  in  competition  with 
the  hand-loom  weaver,  the  unemployed  or  ill-paid  hand-loom  weaver  with 
him  who  has  work  or  is  better  paid,  each  trying  to  supplant  the  other.  Rut 
this  competition  of  the  workers  among  themselves  is  the  worst  side  of  the 
present  state  of  things  in  its  effect  upon  the  worker,  the  sharpest  weapon 
against  the  proletariat  in  the  hands  of  the  bourgeoisie. 

The  proletar’an  is  helpless  : left  to  h?mse!f  he  cannot  Eve  a s;ngle  day. 
JJhe  bourgeoisie  has  gained  a monopoly  of  all  means  of  existence  in  the  broad- 
,4st.  sense  of  the  w°M  What  the  proletarian  neads.  he  can  obtain  only  from 
this  bourgeoisie,  which  is  protected  in  its  monopoly  by  the  power  of  the  State. 
The  proletarian,  is.  therefore,  in  law  and  in  fact,  the  slave  of  the  bour- 
geoisie, which  can  decree  his  life  or  death.  It  offers  him  the  means  of  living, 


22 


THE  WORKING  CLASS. 

Fortunately,  however,  for  the  cause  of  human  rejuvenation,  a 
time  is  reached,  sooner  or  later,  by  most  of  the  layers  of  the  prole- 
tariat when  the  uplifting  tendencies  obtain  a decided  mastery,  and 
when  they  are  effective  enough  to  awaken  in  some  section  or  another 
of  the  proletariat  a consciousness  of  self,  a consciousness  of  its  class 
distinction,  a consciousness  of  the  solidarity  of  all  its  members  and 
of  the  whole  working  class,  a consciousness  of  power  that  is  born 
of  their  close  union.  So  soon  as  any  portion  of  the  proletariat  has 
reached  the  understanding  of  the  fact  that  its  class  is  an  indispen- 
sable economic  element  in  society;  so  soon  as  the  sense  of  self- 
respect  is  kindled  in  its  ranks;  so  soon  as  it  arrives  at  the  convic- 
tion that  a brighter  future  is  in  store  for  its  class  and  that  its 
emancipation  depends  upon  itself;  so  soon  as  any  portion  of  the 
proletariat  has  risen  high  enough  in  the  understanding  of  its  situ- 
ation and  its  mission,  then  is  its  influence  bound  to  pervade  its 
whole  class  and  it  becomes  difficult  to  push  it  back  into  the  level  of 
those  degraded  beings,  who  are  able  to  hate  but  not  to  hold  out 
together  in  a prolonged  struggle;  who,  despairing  of  their  future, 
seek  to  forget  their  misery  in  debauch;  and  who  have  not  the 
stamina  for  revolt,  but  are  fit  only  for  abject  submission.  It  is  next 
to  impossible  to  eradicate  the  class-consciousness  out  of  that  portion 
of  the  proletarians  where  it  has  once  taken  hold.  However  strongly 
the  debasing  influences  of  the  capitalist  system  may  make  them- 
selves felt,  they  may  be  able  to  push  down  such  a portion  of  the 
proletariat  economically , but  never  morally , provided  always  the 
pressure  be  not  crushing.  With  this  exception,  the  pressure  brought 
to  bear  by  capitalism  upon  the  class-conscious  proletariat  will  have 
the  effect  of  producing  a counter  pressure;  it  will  not  debase,  but 
embitter;  it  will  not  degrade  the  proletariat  to  the  ignominy  of  the 
slums,  it  will  raise  them  to  the  dignity  of  martyrdom. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  INDUSTRIAL  RESERVE  ARMY. 

ARMY  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED  IS  RECRUITED  THROUGH  IMMIGRATION. 

We  have  seen  that  the  introduction  of  female  and  child  labor  in 
industry  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  means  whereby  the  capitalists 
reduce  the  wages  of  workingmen.  There  is,  however,  another  means, 
which,  periodically,  is  just  as  powerful,  to  wit,  the  introduction  of 
workingmen  from  neighborhoods  that  are  backward,  and  whose 


but  only  for  an  “equivalent”  for  his  work.  It  even  lets  him  have  the  appear- 
ance of  acting  from  free  choice,  of  making  a contract  with  free,  unrestrained 
consent,  as  a responsible  agent  who  has  attained  his  majority. 

Fine  freedom,  where  the  proletarian  has  no  other  choice  than  that  of 
either  accepting  the  conditions  which  the  bourgeoisie  offers  him,  or  of  starv- 
ing, of  freezing  to  death,  of  sleeping  naked  among  the  beasts  of  the  forest! 
A fine  equivalent  valued  at  pleasure  by  the  bourgeoisie.  And  if  one  pr^er 
tarian  is  such  a fool  as  to  starve  rather  than  to  agree  to  the  equitable  propo- 
sitions of  the  bourgeoisie,  his  “natural  superiors,”  another  is  easily  found  in 
his  place  ; there  are  proletarians  enough  in  the  world,  and  not  all  so  insane 
as  to  prefer  dying  to  living. — “Condition  of  the  Working  Class  in  England.” 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  RESERVE  ARMY.  23 

population  has  slight  wants,  but  whose  labor-power  has  not  yet 
been  unnerved  by  the  factory  system.  The  development  of  produc- 
tion upon  a large  scale,  of  machinery,  namely,  makes  possible  not 
only  the  employment  of  such  untrained  workmen  in  the  place  of 
trained  ones,  but  also  their  cheap  and  prompt  transportation  to  the 
place  where  they  are  wanted.  Hand  in  hand  with  the  development 
of  production  goes  the  system  of  transportation;  colossal  production 
corresponds  with  colossal  transportation,  not  of  merchandise  only, 
but  of  persons  also.  Steamships  and  railroads,  these  much-vaunted 
pillars  of  civilization,  not  only  carry  guns,  liquor  and  syphilis  to 
barbarians,  but  they  also  bring  the  barbarians  to  us,  and  with  them 
their  barbarism.  The  flow  of  agricultural  laborers  into  the  cities  is 
becoming  ever  stronger;  and  from  ever  further  regions  are  the 
swarms  of  those  drawing  nearer  who  have  less  wants,  are  more 
patient,  and  offer  less  resistance.  Slovacs,  Swedes,  and  Italians 
emigrate  to  Germany;  Germans,  Belgians,  Italians  emigrate  to 
France;  Slovacs,  Germans,  Italians,  Irishmen,  Swedes,  emigrate  to 
England;  Slovacs,  Russians,  Armenians,  Swedes,  Italians,  Irish,  Eng- 
lish, and  Chinese  emigrate  to  the  United  States — all  of  them  bearing 
down  upon  wages  in  each  place.  All  these  foreign  workingmen  are 
partly  expropriated  people,  small  farmers  and  producers,  whom  the 
capitalist  system  of  production  has  ruined,  driven  on  the  street,  and 
deprived,  not  only  of  a home,  but  also  of  a country.  Socialism  is 
often  charged  by  the  Philistines  with  a lack  of  patriotism.  Look  at 
those  swarms  of  emigrants;  what  is  it  but  capitalism  that  has  expa- 
triated these  wretches,  and  inflicted  upon  them  the  bane  of  exile? 

ARMY  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED  IS  RECRUITED  THROUGH  WOMAN  AND  CHILD 

LABOR. 

Through  the  expropriation  of  the  small  farmers  and  producers, 
through  the  importation  from  distant  lands  of  large  masses  of  labor, 
through  the  development  of  woman  and  child  labor,  through  the 
shortening  of  the  time  necessary  to  acquire  a trade,  through  all  these 
means  the  capitalist  system  of  production  is  enabled  to  increase  stu- 
pendously the  quantity  of  labor  forces  that  are  at  its  disposal.  And 
side  by  side  with  this  goes  a steady  increase  in  the  productivity  of 
human  labor  as  the  result  of  the  uninterrupted  progress  in  technical 
arts. 

ARMY  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED  IS  RECRUITED  THROUGH  INTRODUCTION  OF 

MACHINERY. 

Simultaneously  with  these  tendencies,  the  machine  steadily 
tends  to  displace  workingmen  and  render  them  superfluous.  Every 
machine  saves  labor-power;  unless  it  did  that  it  would  be  useless. 
In  every  branch  of  industry — and  be  it  well  remembered,  agriculture 
is  to-day  an  industry  and  is  identically  affected — the  transition  from 
hand  to  machine  labor  is  accompanied  with  the  greatest  amount  of 
differing  to  the  workingmen  who  are  affected  by  it,  who,  whether 
fcAey  be  mechanics  or  handicraftsmen,  or  whether  they  be  farm- 
hands, engaged  in  ploughing,  reaping,  or  picking  cotton,  are  made 
superfluous  by  the  machine  and  are  thrown  out  upon  the  streets  and 


24  THE  WORKING  CLASS. 

roadsides.  It  was  this  effect  of  machinery  that  the  workingmen 
felt  first.  Numerous  riots  during  cue  first  years  of  this  century,  and 
not  infrequent  occurrences  to-day,  attest  the  quantity  of  suffering 
which  the  transition  from  hand  to  machine  labor,  or  the  introduc- 
tion of  improved  machinery,  inflicts  upon  the  working  class,  and 
the  despair  to  which  they  are  thereby  driven.  The  introduction  of 
machinery,  as  well  as  its  subsequent  improvement,  is  every  time 
baneful  to  the  workingmen  whom  it  affects.  True  enough,  under  cer- 
tain conditions,  other  workingmen  may  gain  thereby,  such  working- 
men, for  instance,  as  may  be  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  the 
machine  itself;  but,  in  the  first  place,  these  happy  ones  are  to-day 
always  much  fewer  than  those  who  suffer;  and,  in  the  second  place, 
it  may  well  be  doubted  whether  a consciousness  of  this  fact  could  go 
far  to  console  the  starving  ones. 

Every  machine  causes  either  as  much  to  be  produced  as  before 
witn  fewer  workmen,  or  a larger  quantity  of  articles  with  no  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  workmen.  It  follows  that,  if  in  a country 
the  number  of  workmen  employed  does  not  decrease  with  the  devel- 
opment of  the  system  of  machinery,  then  the  market  must  be  ex- 
tended in  proportion  to  the  increased  productivity  of  these  workmen. 
Seeing,  however,  that  we  economic  development  increases  the  pro- 
ductivity of  labor  at  the  same  time  that  it  increases  in  a greater 
degree  the  quantity  of  disposable  labor,  it  follows  that,  in  order  to 
prevent  enforced  idleness  among  the  workmen,  the  market  must  be 
extended  at  a much  more  rapid  pace  than  the  pace  at  which  the 
productivity  of  labor  is  increased  by  the  machine.  Such  a rapid 
extension  of  the  market  has,  however,  rarely  occurred  under  the 
rule  of  capitalist  production.  The  “expansion”  theory  to-day  advo- 
cated by  capitalists,  will  be  found  inadequate.  It  follows  that  en- 
forced idleness  is  a permanent  phenomenon  under  the  capitalist  sys- 
tem of  production,  and  is  inseparable  from  it.  Even  m the  best  of 
times,  when  the  market  suddenly  undergoes  a considerable  extension 
and  business  is  most  brisk,  production  is  not  able  to  furnish  work  to 
all  the  unemployed.  During  bad  times,  however,  when  business  is 
at  a standstill,  their  number  rises  to  fabulous  figures.  In  fact,  the 
unemployed  constitute  quite  an  army — the  industrial  reserve  army, 
as  Marx  called  it;  it  is  an  army  of  la.bor  forces  that  stands  ever 
ready,  at  the  disposal  of  the  capitalist;  an  army  out  of  which  he 
can  draw  his  reserves  whenever  the  industrial  campaign  grows  hot. 

VALUE  OF  THE  ARMY  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED  TO  THE  CAPITALIST  CLASS. 

To  the  capitalist,  this  reserve  army  is  invaluable.  It  places  in 
his  hands  a powerful  weapon  with  which  to  curb  and  subject  the 
army  of  the  employed.  After  excessive  work  on  the  part  of  some 
has  produced  lack  of  work  for  others,  then  the  idleness  of  these  is 
used  as  a means  to  keep  up  and  even  increase  the  excessive  work  of 
the  former.1  And  yet  there  are  people  who  will  deny  that  matters 
are  to-day  arranged  at  their  best.  * 

1 Whence  comes  this  incongruity?  It  lies  in  the  nature  of  industrial  com- 
petition and  the  commercial  crises  which  arise  from  it.  In  the  present  unreg- 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  RESERVE  ARMY.  25 

Although  the  size  of  the  industrial  reserve  army  rises  and  falls 
with  the  ups  and  downs  of  business,  nevertheless,  on  the  whole,  it 
shows  a steady  tendency  to  increase.  This  is  inevitable.  The  tech- 
nical development  moves  on  at  an  ever-increasing  pace,  and  steadily 
increases  its  fields  of  operations,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  ex- 
tension of  the  markets  is  hemmed  in  by  natural  bounds. 

What,  then,  is  the  full  significance  of  lack  of  work?  It  signifies 
not  only  want  and  misery  to  the  unemployed,  not  only  intensified 
vassalage  and  exploitation  to  the  employed;  it  signifies,  further- 
more, uncertainty  of  livelihood  to  the  whole  working  class. 

Whatever  hardships  former  modes  of  exploitation  inflicted 
upon  the  exploited,  one  boon  they  left  them:  the  certainty  of  a liveli- 
hood. The  sustenance  of  the  serf  and  the  slave  was  assured  at  least 
so  long  as  the  life  of  the  master  himself  was  assured.  Only  when 
the  master  perished  was  the  existence  of  his  dependents  in  peril. 
Whatever  amount  of  misery  and  dearth  broke  out  over  the  people 
under  former  systems  of  production,  such  visitations  were  never  tne 
result  of  production  itself,  they  were  the  result  of  a disturbance  of 
production,  brought  on  by  failures  of  crop,  drouths,  floods,  irruptions 
of  hostile  armies,  etc. 

To-day,  the  existence  of  the  exploiter  and  the  exploited  are  not 
bound  up  in  each  other.  At  any  moment  the  workman  can  be 
thrown  upon  the  street  with  wife  and  children,  and  be  given  over 
to  starvation,  without  the  exploiter,  whom  he  has  made  rich,  being 
the  worse  for  it. 

To-day,  the  misery  of  enforced  idleness  is  only  in  very  excep- 
tional instances  the  result  of  a disturbance  in  production  through  in- 
fluences from  without;  enforced  idleness  among  the  workingmen 
is  but  a necessary  result  of  the  development  of  the  present  system 
of  production.  To-day,  just  the  reverse  happens  of  what  happened 
under  former  systems  of  production.  To-day,  such  disturbances  in 
production  rather  improve  the  opportunities  for  work  than  other- 
wise; war,  with  all  its  devastating  influences,  has  for  its  result  an 
immediate  increase  in  the  demand  for  labor. 

Under  our  former  system  of  production  on  a small  scale,  the 
income  of  the  worker  was  in  proportion  to  his  industry.  Laziness 
ruined  him,  and  finally  threw  him  out  of  work.  To-day,  on  the  con- 
trary, lack  of  work  is  greater  the  more  and  the  longer  the  workman 


ulated  production  and  distribution  of  the  means  of  subsistence,  which  is 
carried  on  not  directly  for  the  sake  of  supplying  needs,  but  for  profit,  in  the 
system  under  which  everyone  works  for  himself  to  enrich  himself,  disturb- 
ances inevitably  arise  at  every  moment.  For  example,  England  supplies  a 
number  of  countries  with  most  diverse  goods.  Now,  although  a manufacturer 
may  know  how  much  of  each  article  is  consumed  in  each  country  annually, 
he  cannot  know  how  much  is  on  hand  at  every  given  moment,  much  less  can 
he  know  how  much  his  competitors  export  thither.  He  can  only  draw  most 
uncertain  inferences  from  the  perpetual  fluctuations  in  prices,  as  to  the  quan- 
tities on  hand  and  the  needs  for  the  moment.  He  must  trust  to  luck  In 
jpxporting  his  goods.  Everything  is  done  blindly,  as  guess-work,  more  or  less 
fat  the  mercy  of  accident.  Upon  the  slightest  favorable  report,  each  one 
exports  what  he  can,  and  before  long  such  a market  is  glutted,  capital  remains 
inactive,  prices  fall,  and  English  manufacture  has  no  further  employment  for 
Its  hands. — “Condition  of  the  Working  Class  in  England,”  p.  82. 


26 


THE  WORKING  CLASS. 

toils;  he  brings  enforced  idleness  upon  himself  by  his  own  toil. 
Among  the  many  homely  adages,  which  originated  during  the  system 
of  small  production,  and  which  capitalist  large  production  has  re- 
versed, the  following  is  one:  “The  industry  of  the  laborer  builds  up 
his  house.”  Likewise  has  the  maxim,  so  often  upon  the  lips  of  the 
Philistines,  that  “whoever  will  work  will  find  bread”  been  turned 
into  a lie. 

To-day  the  possession  of  strength  to  labor  is,  to  the  workingman, 
as  unreliable  a shield  against  want  and  misery  as  property  itself  is 
to  the  small  producer.  As  the  spectre  of  bankruptcy  casts  its  shadow 
across  the  path  of  the  small  farmer  and  small  industrialist,  so  does 
the  spectre  of  “out  of  work ” darken  that  of  the  wTage-worker.  Of 
ail  the  ills  that  attend  the  present  system  of  production,  the  most 
trying,  the  most  aggravating,  that  which  harrows  men’s  souls  deep- 
est, and  which  pulls  by  the  roots  every  instinct  of  conservatism,  is 
the  permanent  uncertainty  of  a livelihood.  This  eternal  uncertainty 
of  one’s  own  condition  undermines  one’s  hope  in  the  certainty  of 
life,  and  all  his  interest  in  its  preservation. 

Excessive  work,  lack  of  work,  the  dissolution  of  the  family — 
these  are  the  gifts  which  the  capitalist  system  of  production  carries 
to  the  proletariat  at  the  same  time  that  it  causes  that  class  to  swell 
from  day  to  day,  and  its  condition  to  spread  perceptibly,  more  and 
more,  over  the  ’whole  population. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  STEADY  INCREASE  OF  THE  PROLETARIAT-MERCAN- 
TILE AND  EDUCATED  PROLETARIAT. 

It  is  not  only  through  the  extension  of  large  production  that 
the  capitalist  system  causes  the  condition  of  the  proletariat  to  be- 
come more  and  more  that  of  the  whole  population.  It  brings  this 
about  also  through  the  circumstance  that  the  condition  of  the  wage- 
workers engaged  in  large  production  strikes  the  keynote  for  the  con- 
dition of  wage-workers  in  all  other  branches.  The  conditions  under 
which  the  latter  work  and  live  are  revolutionized;  the  advantages 
which  they  may  have  had  over  those  employed  in  capitalist  industry 
are  turned  into  so  many  disadvantages  under  the  influence  of  the 
latter.  To  illustrate:  In  those  localities  where  mechanics  still  work 
for,  and  board  and  lodge  with,  the  master  mechanic,  the  poor  board 
and  lodging  which  the  wage-worker  employed  in  a capitalist  indus- 
try can  afford  become  a pretext  for  the  master  mechanic  to  reduce 
both  the  board  and  the  comforts  of  lodging  which  his  workmen 
enjoy.  Again:  Formerly  the  long  period  requisite  for  apprenticeship 
was  the  means  to  prevent  the  overstocking  of  a trade;  to-day,  the 
system  of  apprenticeship,  conducted  under  the  guise  of  benevolence 
in  many  of  our  large  cities,  and  called.  Trades  Schools,  notably 
New  York  and  Pittsburg,  is  one  of  the  most  effective  means  to  over- 
run many  a trade  with  cheap  labor,  and  to  knock  the  bread  from 
the  mouths  of  the  adult  laborers.  In  this  respect  also,  as  in  so 


MERCANTILE  AND  EDUCATED  PROLETARIAT.  27 

many  others,  those  instiutions,  which,  under  the  system  of  small 
production,  were  sensible  and  beneficent,  have,  under  the  influence 
of  the  capitalist  system,  become  either  nonsensical  or  hurtful. 

EFFECT  OF  CAPITALISM  ON  SMALL  STORES. 

There  is  another,  and  very  extensive,  domain  on  which  the  capi- 
talist system  of  large  production  exercises  its  influence  of  turning 
the  population  into  proletarians — the  domain  of  commerce.  The 
large  stores  have  begun  to  bear,  and  are  now  bearing,  heavily  upon 
the  small  ones.  The  number  of  small  stores  does  not,  therefore, 
necessarily  diminish.  On  the  contrary,  it  increases.  The  small 
store  is  the  last  refuge  of  the  bankrupt  small  producer.  Were  the 
small  stores  actually  crowded  out,  the  ground  would  be  wholly  taken 
from  under  the  feet  of  the  small  traders;  they  would  then  be  forth- 
with thrust  below  the  class  of  the  proletariat  into  the  slums;  they 
would  be  turned  into  beggars,  vagabonds,  and  candidates  for  the  peni- 
tentiary. Such  in  fact  is,  to  a great  extent,  the  evolution  of  the 
small  trader. 

But  it  is  not  in  the  reduction  of  the  number  of  small  stores,  it 
is  in  the  debasement  of  their  character  that  the  influence  of  large 
production  manifests  itself  in  commerce.  The  small  trader  deals  in 
ever  worse  and  cheaper  goods;  the  tribe  of  the  haberdasher  grows; 
and  the  streets  and  roads  are  overrun  with  peddlers,  itinerant  ven- 
ders, and  hucksters  of  all  manner  of  worthless  articles;  of  spoiled 
fruit,  decayed  vegetables,  etc.,  sold  under  false  pretences  with  all 
sorts  of  fraudulent  devices,  such  as  deceptive  measures  and  weights. 
Thus  the  livelihood  of  the  independent  small  trader  becomes  ever 
more  precarious,  more  proletarian-like,  while,  steadily  and  at  the 
same  time,  in  the  large  stores,  the  number  of  employees  goes  up — 
genuine  proletarians,  without  prospect  of  ever  becoming  independ- 
ent. Woman  and  child  labor,  with  their  accompaniment  of  prostitu- 
tion; excessive  work;  lack  of  work;  starvation  wages — all  the 
symptoms  of  large  production  appear  also  in  increasing  quantity  in 
the  domain  of  commerce.  Steadily  the  condition  of  the  employees  in 
this  department  approaches  that  of  the  proletarians  in  the  depart- 
ment of  production.  The  only  difference  perceptible  between  the 
two  is  that  the  former  preserve  the  appearances  of  a better  living, 
which  require  sacrifices  unknown  to  the  industrial  proletarians. 

CAPITALISM  TURNS  EDUCATION  INTO  A COMMODITY. 

There  is  still  a third  category  of  proletarianism  that  has  gone 
far  on  the  road  of  its  complete  development:  the  educated  proleta- 
rians. Education  has  become  a special  trade  under  our  present  sys- 
tem. The  measure  of  knowledge  has  increased  greatly,  and  grows 
daily.  Capitalist  society  and  the  capitalist  State  are  ever  more  in 
need  of  men  of  knowledge  and  ability  to  conduct  their  business,  in 
order  to  bring  the  forces  of  nature  under  their  power,  be  it  for  pur- 
j^ses  of  production  or  of  destruction,  or  to  enable  them  to  expend 
i?i  luxurious  living  their  increasing  profits.  Now,  then,  it  is  not  only 
the  hardworking  small  farmer,  mechanic,  or  the  proletarians  in 
general,  who  have  no  time  to  devote  themselves  to  science  and  art; 


28 


THE  WORKING  CLASS. 

the  merchant,  the  manufacturer,  the  banker,  the  stock-jobber,  the 
landlord  class — all  of  these  are  in  the  same  fix.  Their  whole  time  is 
taken  up  either  with  their  work,  or  with  their  “business”  and  pleas- 
ures, as  the  case  may  be.  In  modern  society,  it  is  not,  as  it  used  to 
be  under  previous  social  orders,  the  exploiters  themselves,  or,  at 
least,  a class  of  them,  who  nurse  the  arts  and  sciences.  The  present 
exploiters,  our  ruling  class,  leave  these  pursuits  to  a special  class, 
whom  they  keep  in  hire.  Under  this  system,  education  becomes  a 
merchandise. 

A hundred  years  ago  or  so,  this  commodity  was  rare.  There 
were  few  schools;  study  was  accompanied  with  considerable  ex- 
pense. So  long  as  small  production  could  support  the  worker,  he 
stuck  to  it;  only  special  gifts  of  nature  or  favorable  circumstances 
would  cause  the  sons  of  these  to  dedicate  themselves  to  the  arts  and 
sciences.  Incredible,  or  unlikely,  as  it  may  look  at  first  blush,  even 
in  so  new  a country  as  the  United  States,  the  demand  for  physicians, 
teachers,  artists,  etc.,  was,  for  quite  a long  number  of  years,  sup- 
plied almost  entirely  by  this  limited  class  and  its  descendants. 

So  long  as  this  condition  of  things  lasted,  the  merchandise  edu- 
cation commanded  a high  price.  Its  possession  procured,  at  least 
to  those  who  applied  it  to  practical  ends,  lawyers,  for  instance,  phy- 
sicans,  professors,  etc.,  quite  comfortable  livings;  not  infrequently 
it  also  brought  fame  and  honor.  The  artist,  the  poet,  the  philosopher, 
were,  in  monarchical  countries,  the  companions  of  royalty;  in  our 
republic  they  were  persons  of  unquestioned  distinction.  The  aristoc- 
racy of  intellect  felt  itself  superior  to  the  aristocracy  of  birth  or  of 
money.  The  only  care  of  such  was  the  development  of  their  intel- 
lect. Hence  it  happened  that  people  of  culture  could  be,  and  often 
were,  idealists.  This  circumstance  explains  the  appearance,  in  the 
forties,  of  that  galaxy  of  men  and  women  who  took  up  in  this 
country  the  idealist  philosophy  of  Fourier,  resulting  in  the  com- 
munistic tidal  wave  that  swept  over  the  land  at  that  time.  These 
aristocrats  of  education  and  culture  stood  above  the  other  classes 
and  their  material  aspirations  and  antagonisms.  Education  meant 
power,  happiness,  and  worthiness.  The  conclusion  seemed  inevitable, 
that,  in  order  to  make  all  men  happy  and  worthy,  in  order  to  banish 
ail  class  antagonisms,  all  poverty,  all  wickedness  and  meanness  out 
of  the  world,  nothing  else  was  needed  than  to  spread  education  and 
culture. 

GREAT  INCREASE  OF  EDUCATED  PEOPLE. 

Since  those  days  the  development  of  higher  education  has  made 
immense  progress.  The  number  of  institutions  of  learning  increased 
wonderfully,  and,  in  a still  larger  degree,  the  number  of  pupils.  In 
the  meantime,  the  bottom  was  knocked  out  of  small  production. 
The  small  property-holder  knows  to-day  no  other  way  of  keeping  his 
sons  from  sinking  into  the  proletariat  but  by  sending  them  to  co& 
lege;  and  he  does  this  if  his  means  will  at  all  allow.  But,  further- 
more, he  must  consider  the  future,  not  of  his  sons  only,  but  of  his 
daughters  also.  The  rapid  development  in  the  division  of  labor  Is 


MERCANTILE  AND  EDUCATED  PROLETARIAT.  29 

steadily  encroaching  upon  the  household;  it  is  converting  one  house- 
hold duty  after  another  into  a special  industry,  and  steadily  dimin- 
ishing household  work.  Weaving,  sewing  to  a great  extent,  knitting, 
baking,  and  many  other  occupations,  that  at  one  time  filled  up  the 
round  of  household  duties,  have  been  either  wholly  or  substantially 
withdrawn  from  the  sphere  of  house-keeping.  More  than  fifty  years 
ago,  the  “store  close”  of  which  Artemus  Ward  loved  to  make  fre- 
quent mention,  began,  in  this  country,  to  compete  with  and  sup- 
plant the  homespun;  and  similarly,  many  another  home-made  staple 
was  extinguished,  and  its  production  absorbed  by  specialized  indus- 
tries. As  a result  of  all  this,  matrimony,  where  the  wife  is  to  be 
housekeeper  only,  is  becoming  more  and  more  a matter  of  luxury. 
But  it  so  happens  that  the  small  property-holder  and  producer  is,  at 
the  same  time,  sinking  steadily,  and  steadily  becoming  poorer;  ever 
more  and  more  he  loses  the  means  to  indulge  in  luxuries.  In  con- 
sequence of  this,  the  number  of  spinsters  grows  apace,  and  ever 
larger  is  the  number  of  those  families  in  which  mother  and  daughter 
must  work  for  a living.  Accordingly,  woman  labor  does  not  only 
increase  in  the  domains  of  both  large  and  small  production  and  com- 
merce, it  also  spreads  in  other  directions,  in  government  offices,  on 
the  telegraph,  telephone,  railroads,  banks,  in  office  clerkships — book- 
keeping, typewriting,  stenography — and  in  the  sphere  of  the  arts  and 
sciences.  However  loudly  prejudices  and  personal  interests  may 
rebel  against  it,  woman  labor  presses  itself  forward  more  and  more 
upon  the  various  professional  pursuits.  ±t  is  not  vanity,  nor  im- 
portunity, nor  pride,  but  the  force  of  the  economic  development  that 
drives  woman  to  labor  in  these  as  well  as  in  other  departments  of 
human  activity.  In  those  countries  and  those  localities  of  the 
United  States  where  the  men  have  succeeded  in  excluding  the  com- 
petition of  women  from  those  branches  of  intellectual  pursuits  whicn 
are  still  organized  upon  the  old  guild  principle,  the  latter  press  with 
all  the  greater  force  upon  those  pursuits  that  are  not  so  organized,, 
like  writing,  painting,  music,  etc. 

The  result  of  this  whole  development  is  that  the  number  of 
educated  people  has  increased  enormously.  Nevertheless,  the  benefi- 
cent results  which  the  idealists  expected  from  an  increase  of  educa- 
tion have  not  followed.  So  long  as  education  is  a merchandise,  its  ex- 
tension is  tantamount  to  an  increase  in  the  quantity  of  that  mer- 
chandise, consequently,  to  the  falling  of  its  price,  and  the  decline  of 
the  condition  of  those  who  possess  it.  The  number  of  educated  peo- 
ple has  grown  to  such  an  extent  that  it  more  than  suffices  for  the 
wants  of  the  capitalists  and  of  the  capitalist  State.  The  labor  mar- 
ket of  educated  labor  is  to-day  as  overstocked  as  that  of  manual 
labor.  To-day,  it  is  no  longer  the  manual  workers  alone  who  have 
their  reserve  army  of  the  unemployed,  and  are  afflicted  with  lack 
of  work;  the  educated  workers  also  have  their  reserve  army  of  idle- 
ness, and  among  them  also  lack  of  work  has  taken  up  its  permanent 
^quarters.  Those  who  strain  for  a public  office  experience  the  diffi- 
culty of  obtaining  it  by  reason  of  the  crowd;  those  others  who  seek 
employment  elsewhere  experience  the  extremes  of  idleness  and  excea- 


30 


THE  WORKING  CLASS. 


sive  work  the  same  as  the  manual  workers,  and  just  the  same  as 
these  they  are  the  victims  of  wage-slavery. 

CONDITION  OF  EDUCATED  WORKERS  CONTINUALLY  DETERIORATES. 

The  condition  of  the  educated  workers  deteriorates  visibly; 
formerly,  people  spoke  of  the  “aristocracy  of  the  intellect,”  to-day  we 
speak  of  the  “intellectual”  or  “educated”  proletariat;  the  time  is  near 
when  the  bulk  of  these  proletarians  will  be  distinguishable  from  the 
others  only  by  their  conceit.  Most  of  these  still  imagine  they  are 
something  better  than  the  manual  proletarians;  they  fancy  them- 
selves members  of  the  ruling  class;  but  this  attitude  distinguishes 
itself  in  nothing  from  that  of  the  lackeys,  who,  behind  the  backs  of 
their  masters,  put  on  airs  of  lordship.  These  “educated  proletarians” 
have  ceased  to  be  the  intellectual  leaders  of  the  capitalist  class; 
they  are  to-day,  to  the  capitalist  and  to  capitalist  institutions,  what 
“bruisers”  and  “gougers”  are  to  low  taverns.  Scheming  and  plotting 
are  their  leading  pursuits;  their  first  thought  is  not  the  development 
of  their  intellectual  goods,  but  the  sale  of  these;  their  principal 
method  of  getting  along  is  the  prostitution  of  their  own  individu- 
ality. The  same  as  with  the  small  producers,  they  are  dazzled  by  a few 
brilliant  prizes  in  the  lottery  of  life,  they  shut  their  eyes  to  the 
numberless  blanks  in  the  wheel,  and  barter  away  body  and  soul  for 
the  merest  chance  of  drawing  such  a prize.  The  barter  and  sale  of 
one's  convictions  and  a marriage  for  money , these  are,  in  the  eyes 
of  the  majority  of  our  educated  proletarians,  two  means,  as  natural 
as  they  are  necessary,  “to  make  one’s  fortune.”  Into  such  creatures 
has  the  capitalist  system  of  production  turned  our  idealists,  inven- 
tors, thinkers,  and  dreamers! 

Still,  the  supply  of  this  class  grows  so  rapidly  that  there  is  little 
to  be  made  out  of  education,  even  though  one  throw  his  own  indi- 
viduality into  the  bargain.  The  decline  of  the  bulk  of  educated  peo- 
ple into  the  class  of  the  proletariat  can  no  longer  be  checked.1 

Whether  this  development  will  result  in  a movement  of  the 
educated  people  to  join  the  battling  proletariat  in  mass,  and  not,  as 
hitherto,  singly,  is  still  uncertain.  This,  however,  is  certain:  the 
fact  that  the  educated  people  are  being  turned  into  proletarians  has 
closed  to  the  class  of  the  proletariat  the  only  gate  that  was  still 
open,  and  through  which  its  members  might,  by  dint  of  their  own 
unaided  efforts,  have  been  able  to  escape  into  the  class  above. 

It  is  out  of  all  question  that  the  wage-worker  can  become  a 
capitalist,  at  least  not  in  the  ordinary  run  of  events.  Sensible  peo- 
ple do  not  consider  the  chances  of  earning  a prize  in  a Louisiana 
Lottery,  or  of  one’s  falling  heir  to  the  wealth  of  some  unknown 


^he  great  bulk  of  the  professional  class,  the  oniv  portion  of  ?t  which 
is  now  increasing  in  number,  can  no  more  boast  of  economic  independence 
than  the  manual  worker,  although  living,  on  an  average,  upon  a higher  plane 
of  comfort.  Books,  instruments,  costumes,  etc.,  according  to  professions,  are  the 
necessary  and  only  possessions  of  an  overwhelming  majority  of  the  people  or-* 
this  class.  It  is  from  this  poorer  stratum — from  this  intellectual  proletariat, 
so-called — that  Socialism,  in  the  countries  where  it  is  now  strongest,  nas 
recruited  some  of  its  most  active,  gifted  and  courageous  exponents. — “Social- 
ist Almanac,”  p.  104. 


a 
d 


MERCANTILE  AND  EDUCATED  PROLETARIAT. 

ative,  when  they  deal  with  the  condition  of  the  working  class, 
der  certain  particularly  favorable  circumstances  it  did  formerly 
pen,  here  and  there,  that  a workman  succeeded  by  dint  of  great 
privations  in  saving  up  enough  wherewith  to  start  a little  industry  of 
his  own,  or  set  up  a little  retail  shop,  or  give  his  son  a chance  to 
study  and  become  something  “better”  than  his  father.  It  was  always 
ridiculous  to  hold  out  such  possibilities  to  the  workmen  as  the 
means  of  improving  their  condition.  In  the  ordinary  course  of 
events  the  workingman  may  thank  his  stars  if  he  is  at  all  able, 
during  good  times,  to  lay  by  enough  not  to  remain  empty  handed 
when  work  becomes  slack.  To-day,  however,  to  hold  out  such  pos- 
sibilities to  the  workman  is  more  ridiculous  than  ever.  The  eco- 
nomic development  does  not  only  make  saving  on  the  part  of  the 
workingman  more  and  more  difficult,  if  at  ail  possible,  but  it  also 
renders  it  utterly  impossible,  even  though  he  may  be  able  to  save 
up  something,  to  therewith  pull  himself  or  his  children  out  of  the 
class  of  the  proletariat.  To  invest  his  little  savings  in  some  small 
independent  industry,  were  for  him  to  jump  from  the  frying-pan  into 
the  fire;  ten  to  one,  he  will  be  flung  back  to  his  previous  condition, 
with  the  bitter  experience  that  the  small  producer  can  no  longer 
keep  his  head  above  water — an  experience  which  he  will  have  pur- 
chased with  the  loss  of  his  hard-earned  savings. 

Still  more  difficult  than  the  transition  into  the  class  of  the  small 
producer,  indeed,  utterly  hopeless,  is  the  attempt  on  the  part  of  the 
proletarian  to  give  his  son  a chance  to  study.  But  let  it  be  accepted, 
for  the  sake  of  argument,  that  such  an  attempt  has  been  successful; 
of  what  use  will  a college  education  be  to  the  son  of  the  proletariat, 
who,  being  without  funds  and  without  influence,  cannot  wait  for  a 
good  chance  to  sell  his  knowledge,  in  these  days  when  thousands  of 
lawyers,  doctors,  engineers,  and  all  manner  of  professional  men  are 
going  about  hungry? 

SOCIALIST  REPUBLIC  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  WORLD. 

To-day,  whichever  way  the  proletarian  may  turn,  he  finds  await- 
ing him  the  same  proletarian  conditions  of  life  and  of  toil.  Those 
nditions  pervade  society  more  and  more;  in  all  countries  the  bulk 
of  the  population  has  sunk  to  the  level  of  the  proletariat;  to  the 
individual  proletarian  all  prospect  has  vanished  of  ever  being  able, 
by  his  own  efforts,  to  pull  himself  out  of  the  quagmire  into  which 
the  present  system  of  production  has  pushed  him.  The  forecast  of 
.'James  Madison,  made  sixty-five  years  ago,  that,  owing  to  our  com- 
petitive social  system,  the  bulk  of  our  people  would  ere  long  have 
^fost,  not  only  all  property,  but  even  the  hope  of  the  prospect  of 
uiring  any , has  been  verified  to  the  letter. 

The  individual  proletarian  can  accomplish  his  own  redemption 
with  the  redemption  of  his  whole  class.  That  consummation 
ot,  however,  be  reached  without  the  collective  ownership  by  the 
le  of  their  instruments  of  production,  namely,  by  the  Socialist 
ublic. 

At  every  previous  social  revolution,  or  be  it  evolution,  class 
rseded  class.  Thus  the  theocratic  class  superseded  the  patri- 


THE  WORKING  CLASS. 


archie;  the  feudal  superseded  the  theocratic;  and,  in  our  own  c 
the  capitalist  superseded  the  feudal.  In  each  instance  a class  be 
upset  the  class  above,  emancipated  itself  by  subjugating  others, 
introduced  a new  form  of  human  exploitation. 

To  rear,  on  the  contrary,  the  Socialist  Republic;  to  abolish 
class  antagonisms  by  abolishing  the  last  of  the  systems  of  hu 
exploitation;  to  redeem  itself,  and,  alone  of  all  classes  in  the  sc 
evolution  of  the  human  species,  to  accomplish  its  own  redempi 
together  with  that  of  the  whole,  not  ac  the  expense  of  any  port 
of  mankind — that  is  the  historic  mission  of  the  Proletariat;  tin 
the  noble  aim  that  swells  with  pride  the  breast,  and  sweetens 
present  bitterness  of  the  lot  of  every  Proletarian  who  is  consc 
of  his  class  distinction  and  the  obligation  it  imposes  upon  him. 


✓ LASS 


By  KARIj  KAUTSKY. 


Translated  From  the  German  and  Adapted  to  America 
by  DANIEL.  DE  LEON. 

The  struggle  for  supremacy  between  the  Working  Class  and  the  Capitalist 
3 becomes  more  marked  and  acute  as  capitalist  production  develops. 
$ Ciass  Struggle”  gives  a comprehensive  description  of  the  nature  of  the 
est,  its  history,  and  its  inevitable  outcome.  Each  page  is  replete  with 
s for  the  Socialist.  “The  Class  Struggle”  is  the  third  of  the  “Kautsky 
phiets.”  It  should  be  followed  by  “The  Socialist  Republic.” 

CONTENTS. 

IAPTER  I. — -Socialism  and  the  Property-Holding  Glasses. — Why  the 
Rich  Will  Not  Become  Socialists— Property-Holding  Classes  Are  Tied  to 
Capitalist  Production. 

YPTER  II. — Servants  and  Menials. — The  Servant  Class  Is  the  Foe  of  the 
Working  Class. 

PTER  III.— The  Slums.^— The  Slums  Are  the  Allies  of  the  Capitalist 
Class. 

PTER  IV.  —Philanthropy  and  Labor,  Legislation. — Capitalism  Develops 
Pauperism— Why  Capitalists  Would  Not  Abolish  Poverty  if  They  Could — 
Importance  of  Factory  Laws. 

PTER  V. — The  Political  Struggle. — How  the  Capitalists  Render  Labor 
Unions  Ineffective— Proletariat  Begins  Struggle  by  Alliances  with  the 
Capitalist  Class— Political  alliances  with  the  Capitalist  Class  End — 
The  Socialist  Labor  Party  Appears — Certainty  of  the  Ultimate  Triumph 
of  the  Proletariat — Why  the  Proletariat  Is  Bound  to  End  All  Exploita- 
tion. 

PTER  VI.— The  Labor  Movement  and  ' Socialism f — Development  of  the 
Labor  Movement — Utopian  Socialists  Were  Hostile  to  the  Labor  Move- 
nent— “Labor  Socialists”  Were  Hostile  to  the  Class  Struggle — Socialism 
jf  a Hundred  Years  Ago  the  Anarchism  of  To-day. 

PTER  VII. — The  Socialist  Labor  Party — Union  of  the  Labor  Movement 
Thd  Socialism.— The  Socialist  Labor  Party  and  the  Class  Struggle — 
Objects  and  Results  of  the  Class  Struggle. 

PTER  VIII . — I nter nationality  of  the  Socialist  Labor  Party. — Develop- 
ment of  International  Capitalism— Development  of  International  Sooial- 
:sm— Internationality  of  the  Class  Struggle — Marx  Organizes  the  Inter- 
national Association  of  Workingmen — The  “International”  Falls  with  the 
Paris  Commune — Later  Evidences  of  International  Working  Class  Soli- 
darity. 

PTER  IX. — The  Socialist  Labor  Party  and  the  People. — The  Socialist 
Labor  Party  the  Friend  of  the  Working  Class— -The  Socialist  Labor 
Party  the  Friend  of  the  Small  Producer— When  and  Why  Socialists 
Jppose  the  Small  Producer — Small  Production  Cannot  Defend  Itself 
\gainst  Capitalism. 


Single  Copies,  5 cents.  One  Hundred  Copies,  $2.50. 

EW  YORK  LABOR  NEWS  CO., 

2 to  6 New  Reade  Street,  New  York  City. 


In 


SOCIALISM  1ST  EUROPE 

is  striking  terror  to  tjie  jm&nafchies  and<  rppuVjiics  from  the  Baltic  to  the 
Mediterranean,  and1  from  the  Ur^il  to  t^he  Atlantic. 

An  accurate  account  of  Socialism  in  Europe,  its  history  and  its  develop- 
ment, is  now  , i f qr  -the  first  time,  accessible  to  the  Americans.  The  last 
National  Convention  of;  the  ’Socialist  Labor  Party  instructed  the  Na- 
tional Executive  Committed  to  have  prepared  a book  which  would  give  the 
American  people  a. reliable  history  of  International  Socialism  and  keep 
them  fully  informed  on  the  details  of  its  irresistible  advance.  Lucien 
Sanial,  of  New  York  City,  was  authorized  to  proceed  with  the  work.  He 
has  recently  completed  the  task,  and  the 

SOCIALIST  ALMANAC 

is  now  for  sale.  It  is  a volume  of  230  pages.  The  first  part  is  historical 
and  gives  a detailed  history  of  Socialism  in  Europe,  from  1800  down  to 
1899,  under  the"  following  heads: 

CONTENTS. 

Socialism  in  Germany.  I Socialism  in  Belgium. 

Socialism  in  Italy.  Socialism  in  Spain. 

Socialism  in  Austria.  | Socialism  in  Poland. 

The  second  part  of  the  Almanac  contains  instructive  theoretical  and 
statistical  articles,  on  every  subject  connected  with  Capitalism  and  the 
Working  Class.  Here  are  a few  of  the  topics  discussed  : 

The  Classes: 

The  Classes  According  to  Occupations. 

The  Classes  According  to  Population. 

The  Plutocratic  Class.  The  Mercantile  Middle  Class.  The  Agricultural 
Middle  Class.  The  Professional  Class.  The  Wage-Working  Class. 
Distribution  of  Wealth. 

Progress  of  Bankruptcy.  Commercial  Failures  in  the  United  States  from 
1857  to  1897.  Failures  in  the  United  States  and  Canada  According 
to  Capital  Employed. 

The  Trusts,  their  Basis  and  History. 

Female  and  Child  Labor. 

Agriculture:  Number  and  Size  of  Farms  According  to  Acreage  and  to 
Tenure.  Agricultural  Machinery.  Number  of  Agricultural  Laborers 
in  1880  and  in  1890.  Wages  of  Farm  Labor.  Wages  and  Profits  on 
Truck  Farms.  Increased  Productivity  of  Farm  Labor. 

Manufactures:  Capitalist  Concentration  in  Manufacture.  Clerical  Force 
in  Manufacture.  Net  Product  of  Manufacturing  Industry.  Share  of 
Labor  in  its  Product. 

Comparative  Earnings  of  Wage-Workers  and  Profit-Makers.  “Sav- 
ings” and  Waste  of  Capitalist  Class.  Land  Values  in  Manufacture. 
Machinery  in  Manufacture.  Coal  Production.  Pig-iron  Production, 
etc.,  etc. 

Savings  *Banks:  Number  of  Depositors,  amount  deposited,  and  average 
to  each  Depositor  in  Savings  Banks  of  each  State.  Who  Owns  the 
Savings? 

Strikes  and  Lockouts:  Strikes  in  the  United  States.  Strikes  in  France, 
1890-96.  Arbitration  in  France.  Strikes  in  Austria,  1891-95.  Strikes 
in  Switzerland,  1860-94.  Strikes  in  Italy,  1869-95.  Trade  Unions  in 
Holland. 

Railroads:  Finances.  Labor.  Accidents. 

Telegraphs  and  Telephones. 

National  Banks. 

Mineral  Products  of  the  United  States. 

Socialist  Labor  Party  Vote  by  States  since  1890. 

livery  Socialist  and  every  Student  shoud  have  a Copy  of  the  Socialist 
Almanac.  It  is  an  authority  in  all  disputes,  and  will  settle  every  argu- 
ment. 

PRICE,  50  CENTS. 

ADDRESS  ORDERS  TO  THE 

NEW  YORK  LABOR  NEWS  CONPANY,  2 to  6 New  Reade  St.,  New  York, 


